The Moment the World Stood Still
by Scooby Wannabe
Summary: COMPLETE. In 2024, 5 teens are called to be the Defenders of the Hellmouth. They accept their duties and work to protect their families from the creatures of the night. But on a chance meeting, they find that their parents may have more secrets than them.
1. Prologue

**The Moment the World Stood Still**

****

**Disclaimer**: Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel are owned by Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, David Greenwalt, UPN, the WB, blah, blah, blah.I don't own them. If I did, the whole thing would probably be way screwed up, even more than it is now (now being the aftermath of the finales of BTVS Season Six and A:TS Season 3). I DO, however, own Lexie, Joyce (Harris), Jake, Brennan, Gavin, Ciara, Marnee, Jenny (Harris), David, Liam (Angel--no not that Angel. Another one.), Doyle (Angel), Jesse Rupert (Harris--mostly Harris, huh?), Charlie, Ricky, Diana, Bruce Howard, and, well, whatever else you don't recognize in this story. If you want them (why, I can't imagine) all one must do is ask. I'm easy-going.  
  
**Spoilers**: Season Six of BTVS and Season Three of Angel. Except I chose to ignore some stuff. In my world Connor and Angel really do bond, there is no Angel/ Cordelia, Wesley is still good, and Spike didn't get...whatever he got, he's just chipped. Also, I made Anya mortal again.  
  
**Rating**: PG-13, I guess. For, um, mild language and content. If that.  
  
**Author's Note**: This is my first fic in which the characters we've all come to know and love come second in my list of priorities. Yeah this is about the Scooby gang. A major portion of this is sympathy to their pain. But first and foremost this is about the kids, the "Scrappy" gang. Most of the story is from their POV.  
  
**Feedback**: Tis required for me to go on. Come on, don't make me beg!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The sun rose that day as it had every day before. The light swept over the small, peaceful-looking community. It illuminated all the dark corners of the sleepy little town, heating the air to a warm but comfortable temperature. The sun almost seemed to smile down as the inhabitants of the small town rose to begin their little routines.  
  
The light pierced through the night that seemed to forever rule the little village. It slowly worked its way down the street of Revello Drive. With great relief, the sunlight finally took hold of number 1630.  
  
1630 Revello Drive was an older house. It had stood for over thirty years, the home to the same family for most of its time. The house had been the safe hold of a very special family. Originally it had been the three bedroom, two bath home of Joyce Summers and her only daughter. A few years later another daughter appeared, taking the last bedroom. Sadly, Joyce had left only a few months after the child's appearance, leaving the two girls alone in the house. From then on, the family seemed incomplete. Oh, it had been home to other members of the girls' special family, but it had lost the joy of being the safe hold of young innocents. Eventually, only the eldest daughter remained in the house.  
  
Then things had suddenly begun to change. The girl found herself a man. She and the man had a child. A small innocent baby boy that took shelter in the house in his mother's old room. The man married the girl and they decided to live in the house. With him, the man brought a younger man, his first son. The older boy had stayed in the house until the time had come to move on. But he had made the house his home, forever claiming one of the bedrooms as his.  
  
More children came to the happy couple. Unwilling to leave the house that had been home for so many years, the couple added on to it. They put in two more bedrooms and another bathroom on the second floor and added onto the living room and kitchen on the ground floor.  
  
The family was happy. The darkness that had clouded their lives was lifted. They shared the joys of life together, in the house on 1630 Revello Drive. But it was not to last. The proud parents had faced the dark and had defeated it, moved past it. Now the darkness had a new target. A target it craved even more than the old one.  
  
The house can do nothing but once again become a sanctuary. The sun can do nothing except illuminate the day. So the house stands. And the sun shines.  
  
  



	2. Chapter One

In the front room of 1630 Revello Drive, a large mass of limbs and blankets shifted as it gradually regained consciousness. The dark-haired teenage boy slowly opened one eye. He immediately closed it, wincing as the morning light shone through his bedroom window and onto his face. He buried his face in his pillow, willing the light away so he could return to blessed oblivion.  
  
"Ciara! Brennan! Breakfast is on the table!"  
  
Brennan groaned at the sound of his father's voice. Like most other eighteen-year-old boys, all he wanted to do at that moment was sleep. He had gotten to bed late the previous night and another day at Sunnydale High School wasn't something he was greatly looking forward to. He sighed and turned over on his side.  
  
Three minutes later, the twins started screaming loudly as they began their morning ritual of chasing each other up and down the hall. Brennan growled and threw off his bedcovers. After another groan, he got to his feet. Sleep was something he was not going to be granted that morning. He yawned and stretched out his arms as he maneuvered his way around his room. His sister was always going on about what a pigsty the room was, but Brennan couldn't see it. He knew where everything was and, as far as he was concerned, that made the room clean.  
  
Brennan grabbed a pair of black jeans from the large yet overflowing basket beside his closet. A good whiff told him they weren't dirty yet. He pulled them on, carefully checking them for signs of his nightly activities. He kicked a pile of books out from in front of his closet and pulled the closet door open. He perused the various shirts and sweaters hanging in his closet until he found the crimson t-shirt that his sister had gotten him for Christmas last year. It was deep red with black Japanese writing on it. He loved it, though he wasn't positive what it said.  
  
Once he was dressed, Brennan unlocked the door to his room and ran out into the hallway, pulling the door shut behind him. He jumped out of the way as the four-year-old twins ran out of the room across the hall. The boys were already dressed and ready for the nursery school they were enrolled in at the local museum. Their father left the boys there while he, the curator, did his job for the day and their mother, a crisis counselor, went on to her work at the local Jr. High. One boy jumped behind Brennan, keeping his older brother's larger body between him and his twin. The other boy leaned from right to left, trying to find a way around the tall teenager to attack his brother with a rather long tree branch.  
  
"Liam! Doyle!" Brennan shouted angrily. He snatched the stick out of Liam's hand and broke it in two. Flinging the pieces aside he stumbled away from the giggling boys and pointed towards the stairs furiously. "Get on downstairs, now! Dad said breakfast is ready."  
  
The twins ignored the barely contained frustration in their brother's voice and exchanged hungry glances. Pushing each other aside, they skittered around their older brother. The pair half-ran, half-fell down the stairs, racing for the kitchen after crashing to the ground.  
  
Brennan sighed and headed straight for the bathroom. He tried the handle, frowning when he found it locked. Grumbling to himself, he started pounding on the locked door. "Ciara! Can I at least get five minutes in there today?"  
  
Brennan stepped back, unable to mask his shock when the door actually swung open. His seventeen-year-old sister basically skipped out of it. She curled her lips up slowly into a haughty smirk, then continued on down the stairs, bouncing giddily in her small lavender dress. He glared after her in contempt before stepping into the bathroom himself.  
  
Brennan grabbed a bottle of hair gel that rested beside the sink and turned the tap on. He quickly splashed the water over his face, using the washcloth in his private drawer to clean his face. He then took a handful of the styling gel and ran it through his hair, slightly spiking it according to the current style.  
  
Once the boy was done, he looked at himself in the mirror. He looked like his father. He had the same muscular build and brown hair. His eyes were dark and intense. The only thing he shared with his mother was her chin. He knew he was handsome. If he actually tried, he could easily be among the elite in his senior class. But he was content being his own person with the friends he thought of as family.  
  
With a slightly conceited smile at his reflection, Brennan turned and hopped out of the bathroom. He bounded down the stairs and went straight for the kitchen. The rest of his family, minus his older half-brother, was already seated around the table devouring their food. He flopped down into his usual seat between his father and Doyle.  
  
Brennan surveyed the small breakfast feast that his father had spent the past hour preparing. If Brennan had anything pleasant to say about his father, it was that he was a great cook. Brennan snatched the last empty plate on the table, grabbed a small mountain of pancakes and drowned them in blueberry syrup.  
  
Ciara snorted in disgust as her brother started to shovel fork-loads of pancakes into his mouth. He appraised her apple and raised a questioning eyebrow. "Nice to see we're still on the diet."  
  
"At least I try, which is more than I can say for you." She smirked and took a small bite.  
  
Ciara was Brennan's younger sister, but she might as well have been his twin. She was barely ten months younger than Brennan, a genuine accident. Since their birthdays fell in September and July their parents had enrolled them in the same grade. It had worked out for the best. Even though they would never admit it, the brother and sister were, in reality, great friends.  
  
Ciara looked more like their mother. She had their mom's golden hair and slight build. Her face was shaped exactly like their mom's. The only quality she had inherited from their father was his nose. Her eyes were unlike either of their parents. They shined clear, bright blue. Their father said that they were like his mother's eyes.  
  
Neither of them knew if he was telling the truth. Their father's family had died long ago, leaving Ciara and Brennan without so much as a picture to know their grandparents or aunt by. Their mother's mother had also passed on but they had pictures and old home movies of her. By watching the old videos, both teenagers felt like they knew their grandmother very well. They also had an aunt that they loved and cherished on their mother's side, as well as a grandfather they saw about once a year.  
  
It was true that the only blood relative they saw on a regular basis was their mother's sister. But Brennan and Ciara had grown up with an assorted group of interesting and loving honorary aunts and uncles. Their parents, instead of growing up without a family, had created their own special family made up of their friends. Their friends, now married with children of their own, were now Brennan and Ciara's doting aunts and uncles. Brennan and Ciara loved their special family and couldn't have been happier growing up.  
  
The twins' loud laughing snapped Brennan back to reality. The twins, his parents' four-year-old spawns, were entertaining themselves by throwing pancakes at one another. Brennan was still trying to get used to the chaos that was William Gillis and Allen Francis, better known as Liam and Doyle (why they all called Allen Francis by the nickname Doyle was still a mystery to his older siblings). The twins were identical, two jumbles of their parents. Light brown hair, hazel eyes, and button noses, the twins were adorable. Until they woke up.  
  
Brennan's mother watched the boys in amusement, not paying any attention to the mess they were making. His father was also chuckling at the young boys. His parents smiled at each other across the table. Their eyes met and immediately glossed over with a look Brennan knew all too well. It was the look he blamed the devil-children on.  
  
Ciara saw the look too. She dropped her apple and gave an awkward smile. "Well, I just remembered that I have that, uh, French assignment to make-up so.bye."  
  
"Yeah, I have, well. . .see you later," Brennan mumbled as he moved to get up.  
  
"Hold it." Brennan's father reached over and stayed his son with his hand. "This is family breakfast time. You can put your busy morning on hold for twenty minutes."  
  
Brennan sighed and settled back in his seat. He and Ciara sat in awkward silence for a few moments.  
  
"Oh. . .fine, go," their mom said as she rolled her eyes.  
  
Ciara turned and ran out the door, pulling Brennan along with her. Their parents waved goodbye as the two teenagers headed out the door.  
  
Inside the house, Buffy turned to Angel. "I just don't get them."  
  
Angel laughed. "They're two of a kind."


	3. Chapter Two

**Disclaimer:  See Author's Notes.  Basically not mine, 'cept the kids**

Instead of going straight to school early, Brennan and Ciara ran right to the local rare bookshop, The Quill and Parchment.  They crashed through the shop-door to find a small group of people already sitting around the large reading table in the middle of the shop.

Marnee Osbourne looked up from the book she had been scanning and smiled.  "Hey, guys!  We were just filling Bruce in on last night's patrol."

"So sorry I missed that," Brennan muttered as he collapsed into the chair beside Marnee's brother, Jake Osbourne, and across from Gavin Harris.

Ciara rolled her eyes as she took the seat beside Marnee.  Aside from Brennan, Marnee was Ciara's best friend.  They had basically known each other since birth, since they were born just four minutes apart.  Ciara proudly reminded Marnee that she was oldest as often as she could.  

Marnee and Jake's parents, the Osbourne's, were part of the Angel's special family.  The same was true of Gavin's parents.  All five teens, along with their siblings had been raised as family.  None of the five could remember a time when they hadn't been together.  Because of the non-existent age difference, Ciara, Marnee, Brennan, and Gavin had formed easy friendships as they grew.  Over time, they had easily become a notorious foursome in the family.  Jake, along with Gavin's older twin sisters, Lexie and Joyce, had at first been outsiders, the older kids.  Then they had all seven been "called".  

On the first day of Brennan, Ciara, Marnee, and Gavin's freshman year, Lexie and Joyce's senior year, and Jake's junior year of high school, they had met a strange man.  Everyone in town knew the man as Bruce Howard, the owner of The Quill and Parchment.  Only the teenagers knew what Bruce really was: a Watcher.  They had been stunned to learn that a Watcher was the guide and trainer of the Slayer and that the Slayer was the one girl in all the world who hunted and killed vampires and demons.  The real shock had been discovering that the monsters they had thought were fairy tales actually existed.  The one relief that they had experienced in the encounter was that none of the girls was the Slayer, nor did they know her.  That relief had been short-lived, for instead of being sent to the Slayer, Bruce had been sent to Sunnydale because, for some unexplainable reason, the seven friends had their own supernatural abilities.  

Bruce was their Watcher and they were to be "the Warriors" of the Powers that Be.  The teenagers had been found through portents and rumors but no explanation for their abnormality was ever discovered.  Bruce's theory was that it was likely some natural adaptation thanks to being born and raised on the Hellmouth.  Ciara had always found that amusing.  All the children of the three families, from Lexie and Joyce to Liam and Doyle, had begged their parents at some point to move to Los Angeles.  Their parents had always refused, stating firmly that Sunnydale had been and always will be home.  If any of their parents had actually known what living in Sunnydale had done to their children, they would probably have moved to some little town in upstate Connecticut.

Marnee elbowed Ciara, pulling her out of her musings.  Marnee leaned over to Ciara's ear, barely able to keep her voice below a whisper.  "Mom caught me sneaking in again last night."

Ciara turned to her friend and bit her lip.  "What did she say?  Are you grounded?"

Marnee shook her head.  "It was barely after midnight when I climbed through my window.  Lucky we made it a quick sweep.  I got off with a warning."

Ciara sighed in relief and smiled.  She absolutely loved Marnee's mother.  Willow Osbourne was the Computer Science teacher at their school.  She knew everything there was to know about computers, almost about everything.  Willow had always been the most creative of the mothers, coming up with all sorts of activities to keep her children, nieces, and nephews occupied, spoiling them all rotten in the process.  Willow also taught, for some reason unbeknownst to the teens, World Mythology.  For some even stranger reason, all the kids had practically been forced to take it by their parents.  It was fine with all of them, though, because most of the supposed "legends" they studied were all too real to the five teens.

Willow's husband, Daniel, who preferred it if the kids called him Oz, was just as interesting as his wife.  He was a simple and quiet man, but an awesome father and uncle.  He was always introducing the children to the wonderful world of music.  Oz also had an interesting job.  He was the sole owner and manager of the world's fourth largest computer music station.  He would be really famous if anyone ever figured out who he was.

Marnee was short and lean, with a sprite-like beauty.  She sported her parents' trademark red hair.  Her eyes were a strange mix though, green with heavy streaks of gold and hazel in them.  Ciara's mom jokingly referred to them as "witch eyes."  Ciara just laughed.  _If Mom only knew_.  Marnee was training with Bruce to become a full-fledged witch.  She was already extremely powerful.

Her brother, Jake, was almost as powerful as she was.  Jake was almost twenty and a student at UC Sunnydale.  His major was something very complicated that Ciara really didn't understand.  Jake was the tallest one of their entire family, towering over all of them at 5'10".  He had strawberry blonde hair and emerald green eyes.  He was smart, probably smarter than Bruce.  He knew all sorts of strange things but was still very caring and honest, preferring to be open with his feelings than closed off.  

Marnee and Jake were powerful apart, but ten times more powerful when they were together.  Bruce explained that it had something to do with them being brother and sister.  The magically inclined siblings also had a younger brother, David, who was eleven.  

David was the sweetest kid, a real joker.  He had darker hair than the rest of his family and gray-green eyes.  At eleven David was already showing signs of being a natural warlock.  When he became angry, which was seldom if ever, interesting things seemed to happen.  Bruce planned on instructing David as well, but it was still too soon to introduce him to the world of the paranormal.

Gavin Harris was three months younger than Brennan.  Gavin's father, Xander, owned Sunnydale's largest construction company.  His mother, Anya, taught yoga and, to Gavin's immense disgust and embarrassment, kama sutra classes at the YMCA.  The word that came to Ciara's mind when she thought of the Harris' was, well, _weird_.  But a nice weird.

Gavin was the middle child of five.  The twins were both away at college.  His younger brother, Jesse Rupert, nicknamed J.R., was still in diapers, and his little sister, Jennifer Tara, better known as Jenny, was fourteen.  

Gavin was a strange guy.  He was goofy, much like his father, but more down to earth.  He had light brown hair and brown eyes, and was tall and skinny.  He was an interesting mix of his mother and his father.  The result was a fairly handsome boy.

The Harris children had strange abilities, even by Bruce's twisted standards.  They could fight well enough and do magic when the time called for it, but their real power lied in their sensitivity to the paranormal.  They could feel when something bad was around them or when someone they cared for was in trouble.  Bruce's more wordy explanation was that the Harris' had somehow found a way to "tap into the invisible world of auras and be able to sense different creatures' trace patterns and/or emotions leading to ominous feelings not unlike those of a psychic, but much more insightful and useful."

Lexie and Joyce, three years older than Gavin, had both developed their power until they had left for school.  The twenty-one-year-old girls were identical twins.  They had curly brown hair and looked more like their father.  They still assured Bruce that they trained on their own.  

Jenny was different than the other children.  She didn't look like any of the others.  She had their father's chin, her mother's cheeks, and Bob's nose.  She had been born around Christmas with a terminal heart condition.  The doctors had told the family that it was hopeless, but, by some miracle, the condition had cleared up on its own.  She still suffered more mishaps than any of the other children and was therefore doted on.  To Gavin's immense relief, Bruce hadn't been able to find any thing "special" about Jenny.  They had all voted unanimously not to involve her, to keep her out of harm's way.  

Jesse Rupert had been born earlier that year, the result of Xander and Anya's more than active sex life.  The baby was sweet and quiet natured, barely ten months old.  J.R., of course, was still too young to even be tested.

Despite the age difference, Jake had enjoyed hanging around with Gavin and Brennan in early childhood.  During the junior high and high school days, Jake had distanced himself a bit, playing the role of elder brother.  But as the two younger boys had matured, their friendship had deepened.  When the teenagers had all first been called they had been close friends, even with Lexie and Joyce.  After they started to fight side-by-side, a bond, even deeper than friendship, had formed between all of them.  The three boys now made a joint effort to look out for the younger children.  Ciara and Marnee jokingly referred to them as the overprotective brothers from hell.

Ciara and Brennan were definitely the heart of the combating team.  They were the strongest actual fighters, both having the might of twenty men.  They both healed at a remarkable rate and had reflexes resembling those of a vampire's.  Bruce had said on many occasions that their power rivaled that of the Slayer's.

Every night the five teens patrolled Sunnydale.  Their lovely hometown was on what Bruce called a Hellmouth.  Gavin had once described it as "a party town for all the creatures that go bump in the night."  As legend went there was a Slayer that once lived in Sunnydale, protecting it from the nastier things that walked the earth but for some reason the Watcher's Council had lost track of her.  Since the current Slayer was somewhere in Malaysia it was assumed that she was dead.  Which meant the duty to protect the Hellmouth rested upon the shoulders of the five teens.

Which they all thought was incredibly unfair, most of the time.  They hadn't been mystically called for this duty but somehow they were the defenders of the Hellmouth anyways.  Just because of some freak adaptation.  It really encroached on their normal lives.  If it weren't for Marnee and Jake's constant tutelage they all would have flunked out of school long ago.  They were not considered the "coolest" kids in school, by any standard.  They all had constant problems with their parents since they weren't allowed to tell them anything.  Basically they risked their lives night after night and were dissed for it day after day.  But sometimes it was cool.  It gave them all a purpose, which most teens really didn't have.

Bruce was a strange type of mentor to the group.  He was incurably English.  He was always wearing strange tweed suits and talking about something none of them understood.  Bruce was short, kind of chunky, and balding.  He knew everything there was to know about demons, something of which he was very proud.  Sometimes they all thought he was way too strict with them, but he made up for it all the time.  He really cared about each of his charges and was always ready to sit down with any of them with a pot of tea and listen to them fume, or sob, about their problems, be them supernatural or not.

Ciara watched as Bruce sat at the head of the table, making notes of their encounters last night in his journal.  Once they were finished relating their tale to him, he looked up.  "Is that everything?"

Marnee nodded.  "In a nutshell."

Jake looked at his sister in thought.  "Why 'in a nutshell'?  Why not 'in a turtle shell'?"

Gavin rocked his chair on its back legs and snorted.  "Glad to see you're learning so much away at college."

Jake shrugged, sporting a wry smile.  "I try."

Bruce looked at them sardonically.  He shook his head as he turned to retrieve a book from the main counter.  "Yes.  Well.  Let me see if I have this straight.  You made a sweep of Restfield Cemetery last night and encountered a group of vampires with strange marks on their foreheads.  Was this the mark?"

Ciara looked down at the mark and grimaced.  It looked like a six-pointed star with antennas.  "Yeah.  Please say it's a new age tattoo."

Bruce shook his head.  "I'm afraid that you have encountered the minions of a Gummie.  Only Gummies use that symbol."

Marnee smiled anxiously.  "I guess it would be too much to hope that by Gummie you mean an animated bouncing bear."

Bruce blinked at her.  The others all turned their heads slowly to stare at the girl whose face was slowly becoming as red as her hair.  Gavin coughed loudly.  "Excuse me?"

"You know.  The cartoon about the family of bears that get bouncy when they drink their special juice."  Seeing that her friends had no idea what she was talking about, Marnee sunk down into her chair.  "It comes on Children's Classic Programming Channel right after _Blue's Clues_."

"Yeah.  All in favor of suspending Marnee's cartoon privileges raise your right hand," Brennan said as he raised his hand.  Jake and Gavin's hands flew up seconds later.

Bruce rubbed his temples.  He was beginning to get a rather familiar headache.  "As much as I enjoy your ever…disturbing company, it's almost time for school to begin.  Meet me here afterwards.  I'll have had a better chance to research this matter more thoroughly."

The teens groaned and rose to their feet.  Jake was the only one who smiled.  "Check.  Power Ranger meeting this afternoon."


	4. Chapter Three

**Disclaimer:  See Author's Notes.  Basically, I own kids, Joss owns everything else.  As things are going now, I wish it was vice-versa.**

Around the same time back at the Angel residence, eleven old friends gathered into the large living room.  "All right, this meeting of the Scooby Gang is now called to…"

"Sorry for interrupting, Buffy, but do you mind if I put J.R. down for a nap in the twins' room?" Anya asked, trying unsuccessfully to hold the squirming baby in her arms still.

"The boys are probably not napping, Anya, but feel free to put him in mine and Angel's room.  We still have the playpen set up for time outs."  The blonde smiled as Anya ran out of the room and up the stairs with the now screaming child.

Buffy glanced around the room as they all waited for the ex-demon to return.  It had been a long time since they had all gathered together.  She shifted her weight where she was standing in the middle of the room.  Xander and Anya had been sharing the sofa with Willow and Oz.  Angel sat on the other side of the room in his old leather chair.  Fred, Cordelia, and Dawn scrunched together on the love seat while Wesley and Gunn sat on chairs brought in from the dining room.  

They all waited, chatting amongst themselves until Anya reappeared.  Once she was settled between her husband and Willow again, Buffy returned to the matter at hand.  "Okay, guys.  I know it's been awhile since we've faced a bad bigger than the occasional vamp, but, unfortunately, this is up to us.  Wesley?"

Wesley and Cordelia had come rushing into town earlier that morning with Fred and Gunn in tow.  The two couples had been planning a visit later that week so that they could attend Gavin's eighteenth birthday party.  Angel and Buffy had been wrestling the twins into the minivan when the four LA natives had arrived.  Buffy had known that something was wrong the moment she saw that Diana, Charles Jr., and Frederick were not with them.

Without having to say anything, Buffy and Angel had taken the twins upstairs to their room then started the phone calls.  Less than twenty minutes later, the rest of the old gang arrived at the Angel residence.  

After a few minutes alone with Wesley, they knew that the problem was serious.  Even though Angel Investigations had been closed for quite some time, Wesley still made it a point to stay informed on the movements of demons, easy enough for someone with his connections.  

Wesley stood, his old Watcher instincts taking over.  "I recently learned from various sources that a Gummie has come to Sunnydale, intent on opening the Hellmouth."

Dawn looked at him doubtingly.  The thirty-seven-year-old journalist raised an eyebrow.  "A Gummie?"

Angel, however, was not as skeptical.  The ex-vampire considered his friend intently.  "A Gummie?  Wesley, are you sure?"

Wesley nodded gloomily.  "Yes.  I'm sure."

Willow sighed, disheartened by their timbre.  "Okay, I'm guessing this thing isn't a nice sugary sweet."

"Hardly," Anya quipped.  She folded her hands in her lap and looked around nervously.  "A Gummie is a very intelligent demon.  They were rumored back in my day to have been the advisors of Lucifer himself.  They make a plan and carry it out.  I've never heard of one being defeated."

Wesley confirmed her information with a slight nod.  "It strives on fear and doubt.  Feeds off power.  This means that a Gummie is rarely seen without a large following of minions, usually vampires but sometimes other breeds of demons.  It's actually fairly simple to kill, being frailer than humans.  It's just very difficult to actually get to it.  Its minions are fiercely loyal and the Gummie is smart enough not to be caught unawares."

Buffy thought this all over carefully.  Her long-inactive Slayer instincts gave her little help.  "I guess it's safe to assume that this Gummie thing probably won't be easy to find either."

"No, but I can tell you exactly where it will be ten days from now," Wesley smirked.  "To open the Hellmouth it will need a new moon.  The ritual itself is quite lengthy so it will probably begin as soon as the sun sets."

Buffy seemed to brighten at this answer.  "Okay, if that's the case I think we can handle this.  Will, Wesley, Anya, Fred, and Oz I need you in charge of research.  You guys are our brains so it's up to you to figure out how to outsmart this thing."  All five nodded, understanding their assignment.

Buffy turned her attention to the men sitting around the room.  "Xander, Gunn, and Angel if these things have such a following, then we're going to need a good artillery.  Long range and hand to hand for everyone."

"Cordelia, Dawn, and I will be on stake duty."  The women groaned.  "These things will have a good number of followers that will be mostly vamps.  Which brings me to my next point."

Buffy bit her lip and began to pace the room.  "With that number of vamps in town, I'd say it's a fair guess that the feeding rate over the next week or so will skyrocket.  Quick patrols aren't going to cut it this time, people.  We need to form three teams that will cover the entire town all night every night.  I think it best if the teams have at least one supernaturally gifted being in each group.  I'll be in Group A.  Angel will head Group B.  Willow, Group C.  Wesley and Dawn are with me.  Cordelia, Anya, and Xander, you three go with Angel.  Fred, Oz, and Gunn, Group C.  Groups are to stay together.  It would probably be good if all three groups took the larger parks and cemeteries together."

Everyone stared at the middle-aged woman as she continued to frantically pace the room.  After a moment Willow stood and crossed the room to her old friend.  She put a reassuring hand on Buffy's shoulder.  "Okay, Buffy, calm down.  We're all okay here.  We've done this before dozens of times."

"No," Xander said.  He looked as shaken as Buffy.  "Sure, we did this before…about fifteen years before.  Things have been slow enough since Dead-Boy became Alive-Boy, but since Faith…we haven't done much more than the random slaying once every few months.  Buffy, we're all getting older.  We're parents of semi-adults.  I, for one, can't even take a fledgling anymore.  Willow's still a kick-ass Wicca but she can't lead an entire team by herself.  Buff, I hate to say it, but you are over forty.  You've been retired for over a dozen years.  Connor and his crew always handle all the big stuff.  We've been able to keep the vampire population down, and to be honest, I don't understand how.  But.  We.  Cannot.  Do.  This."

The entire group looked down at the floor.  Xander was right.  The days of the Scooby Gang had long passed, the fighters had all moved on to normal lives.  They went on group patrols once every week or two, when the numbers of the obituaries in the paper began to increase.  When they actually came across a vampire or a demon, they were all still capable, usually bringing the nasty down after a frenzied battle.  But none of them stood out anymore.  Not even Buffy.

Buffy looked hard at Xander.  "You think that I don't know that?  We were great so many yesteryears ago.  Now, we're adequate.  And it might just be me, but I want to be more than adequate.  Together we stand the chance to be great again.  And we have to.  Unless we can get the current Slayer here before tonight, I don't see any help coming."

All eyes turned to Wesley.  He drew in a deep breath.  "I contacted the Council.  They said that the Slayer was busy fighting a master vampire in Malaysia.  They said that there was a team in the States, but they weren't too forthcoming about the team's whereabouts or even if they would be sent."

Buffy exhaled sharply.  "Then it's up to us."

They all nodded grimly, no one wanting the job they knew was before them.

"I hate to be the one that asks this," Oz began tentatively, "but what about the kids?"

Buffy whirled on him.  "What about the kids?"

To the amazement of everyone, Oz actually smiled.  "I want to get them out of here.  If the Hellmouth does open, I don't want my children anywhere near it even though I know it won't make that much of a difference."

The entire group shuddered as they thought of the prospect of the children being in Sunnydale if the Hellmouth opened.  They had known the dangers of raising their children on the Hellmouth.  As a result, the older children had horrendously early curfews.  The younger kids never went anywhere after dark without one of their parents.  They all had strict boundaries, day and night.  Cemeteries, the docks, the warehouses, all the usual demon and vamp haunts, were all off limits.  They all had rules on talking with strangers and letting people they didn't know or who had been dead or missing for a while into their houses.  Angel and Buffy had even bought crucifix pendants for Brennan and Ciara when they had been nine, insisting that they wear them whenever they go out at night.  The thought of the kids in Sunnydale while someone attempted to open the Hellmouth was enough to make each of them shudder.

Cordelia was the first to speak.  "I don't know how plausible this is for you guys, but Wes and I left Diana with our neighbors.  They run a boarding school and have the room.  They…understand the work we do and are more than happy to take the kids.  They are really good with children.  Gunn and Fred left Ricky there, too."

Angel shook his head.  "Well, I could see being able to send the little ones up there but I can't really think of a decent excuse to tell the others.  It would be a miracle to get David and Jenny to go without any questions.  The rest of the kids, well, they're almost adults now."

"Maybe we could call Connor?" Fred suggested.  "We could send the rest of the kids to his place for awhile."

Buffy shook her head.  "Connor is currently in Italy tracking that Cryssel demon that came through town last month.  Angel and I haven't heard from him in over a week."

Anya snapped her fingers.  "Why not send Gavin, Marnee, Ciara, and Brennan away by themselves for a few days?  Tell them it's a Senior present.  Get Jake to go too.  Somehow."

They all gaped at her in silence.  Xander snorted loudly.  "Our kids, by themselves, in a strange place?  I think I would send them to fight the Gummie before I'd do that."

Willow sighed sadly.  "Anya, we can barely control them here in Sunnydale.  They're all wild.  We've even caught Marnee, of all people, sneaking off to who knows where at ungodly hours."

"And let's not forget the time they all got suspended for starting that huge fight at school," Xander reminded them.

Buffy shook her head.  "Lord, don't even mention school.  The grades our two bring home are enough to keep them grounded until they're thirty."

"They aren't that bad," Anya said defensively.  "They're just young and carefree."

Oz shook his head.  "Face it, Anya.  Buffy didn't get into that much trouble in school, and she had an excuse."

Xander drummed his fingers against his knee angrily.  "I've said it before and I'll say it again.  It's all that book-guy's fault.  They were good kids until they started hanging around down there."

Angel chuckled.  "Yeah, but I've checked Mr. Howard out.  He's a good man and they're learning a lot from him.  I actually caught Brennan reading _Paradise Lost_ last week.  He said Bruce told him to read it."

Wesley furrowed his brow.  "Bruce Howard?"

They all nodded.  Willow looked at him awkwardly.  "Do you know him?"

"Ahh…" Wesley knew the name sounded familiar, but he couldn't quite place it.  "I'm not sure.  Sounds familiar."

Fred shrugged.  "It's not really that uncommon of a name."

Oz cocked his head in thought.  "Actually, I'd say it's pretty common."

"Well, I don't care what any of you say," Xander nearly pouted.  "Bruce is the reason they became so…troubled."

Wesley, Cordelia, Fred, and Gunn all eyed the other six adults.  They were all parents.  Wesley and Cordelia's daughter, Diana, was twelve.  Gunn and Fred's sons, Charles Jr. and Frederick, better known as Charlie and Ricky, were twenty and nine, respectively.  Charlie had been easygoing, but soon Fred and Gunn would be raising a moody teenager themselves, along with Wesley and Cordelia.

Cordelia gave a low-whistled.  "The way you guys tell it, I can hardly wait to be the mother of a teenager."

"Here, here," Wesley muttered. He sat down in his chair beside Gunn.

"Yeah, well, as much as I love all types of parenting advice I must say that this is really getting us nowhere," Gunn drawled.  

"Well, I guess all we can do is send the little ones to your friends and then find someway to keep the rest of them indoors," Dawn said.  "Jenny and David are great kids.  If you wanted, I could watch them when you guys can't.  I just don't think that seventeen and eighteen year olds would be thrilled at the idea of a baby-sitter."

"We'll think of something to keep them busy.  Right now we have work to do." Angel rose from his seat and started for the basement where he and Buffy hid their weapons. 

Buffy inhaled.  "All right, then.  Let's get to work."

**~~~**

"I can't believe your mom gave us so much work!  This is going to take forever to finish!" Ciara shouted in disbelief.

Marnee shrugged wretchedly.  First, her mother had been late to class for the first time Marnee could ever remember.  Then, with less than ten minutes of class left, she assigned four chapters worth of work due the following day.  The girls moped their way down the hall as Gavin and Brennan walked silently beside them, still in a state of shock.

The four teens walked into the nearly deserted student lounge.  They all dropped their bags and sat down in the large comfy chairs, not caring that their next class started in less than three minutes.  Ciara rubbed her head.  "I mean, regular homework is a chore to finish when a big bad comes riding into town.  But this?"

"Maybe we can get Bruce to finish it for us," Brennan grumbled numbly.  "Not like he's got big plans tonight." 

Gavin came out of his dream state.  "By the way, did anyone find anything helpful on the web?"

"Oh!  Yeah, here."  Marnee reached into her bag and pulled out a pile of computer printouts.  She handed them to Gavin.  "See, I told you it was a cartoon show."

Gavin dropped the papers to the floor as if they were diseased.  The other three laughed as he realized that Marnee had been joking.  He bent over to gather the scattered papers.

"Mr. Harris.  Miss Angel.  Mr. Angel.  Miss Osbourne.  Why am I not surprised to find you four here instead of in your sixth period classes?"

Gavin froze then slowly rose back to a sitting position in his seat.  The others were looking at Principal McDavid tensely.  Gavin tried for an innocent smile.  "I…uh, just dropped my homework.  The others were politely waiting on me."

Principal McDavid looked at Gavin in amusement.  "Well, it looks to me as if you have now gathered your papers.  I suggest you four get to class.  It would be a shame to have to talk with your parents again about your frequent class absences."

They all nodded and rose to their feet.  Principal McDavid smiled then walked in the direction of his office.  Just in case he came back to check on them, the four teenagers grabbed their bags and ran across the hall into the school auditorium.  The beautiful hall was always empty during school hours, unless it was time for the dreaded talent show.  They all settled themselves into the comfy red seats.

Marnee produced a banana from somewhere within her jacket and began to peel it.  She looked at the creamy fruit and raised her eyebrows.  "You know, I think that man has it in for us."

Ciara watched as Marnee shoved the top quarter of the banana in her mouth then shrugged.  "Who can really blame him?  It's not like we actually follow the school rules.  And he has cut us a few breaks in the past."

"He plays favorites," Brennan grumbled as he scowled.  "The pretty people that make decent grades, socialize, and participate in school activities get away with murder."

"Well, we could kill them," Gavin replied solemnly.  "We are the Warriors and it is our duty to protect the world from evil.  I happen to find jocks and cheerleaders very evil."

Marnee looked at her friend doubtfully.  "I think that the Council would frown upon that."

"Maybe our parents, too," Ciara smiled wickedly.  "Speaking of parents, Marn, I want the whole story on what happened last night.  Did you get the spill?"

Brennan frowned.  "Last night?"

"Mom caught me sneaking in," Marnee clarified.  She swallowed another mouthful of banana.  "She gave me the speech on responsibilities, acting my age, you know.  The 'I know what it's like' drill."

Gavin snorted.  "That's the one I get daily.  I swear, I think we should just bring a demon home someday.  I can just see Mom and Dad's reaction.  Mom would probably ask it about its sex life while Dad screamed like a woman."

"Oh, isn't that the scream you copyrighted?" Marnee laughed, tossing the leftover banana peel into the air.  It floated there for a second, then, as if it had a will of its own, flew across the auditorium and into the trash bin.

Marnee smiled proudly as she settled back into the seat.  Gavin crossed his arms over his chest and scowled at the redhead.  Brennan fought back a grin at the pair.  "I see Gav's point.  What about my dad?"

"Lecture!" Ciara yelled as she burst into giggles.  "On the importance of education or culture or history and what they should mean to the demon people."

"I think that would come a day or two later," Marnee laughed.  "I see Uncle Angel studying the demon then locking himself in the bedroom to brood."

"You're both right!" Gavin smiled.  "Has he given you the college sermon yet?  He and Dad cornered me yesterday afternoon.  I thought I would never get free."

"We pacified him and Mom by making a big show of applying to a lot of different places," Brennan replied.  "Northwestern, NYU, Notre Dame, and UCLA."

Ciara nodded, her smile gone.  "They didn't understand why we would want to go to UC Sunnydale.  Plus, our excuses didn't make much sense.  Not like we could tell them that we are destined to die here."

"Well, Lexie and Joyce got out," Marnee pointed out.  "They're as happy as a demon hunter can be in LA."

"Oh, don't give me that, Marnee," Ciara mumbled.  "You know that they only got to go to LA because they agreed to come back.  Plus, they have a temporary Watcher up there and they patrol Los Angeles and they're studying demonic history with that 'special professor' and they…"

"All right, all right.  We know!"  Gavin rolled his eyes and glanced at his wristwatch as he propped his feet up on the seat in front of him.  "Bren, when are we supposed to meet Jake?"

Brennan looked at his own watch.  "In about twenty minutes.  We better get going."

Marnee groaned loudly, but reluctantly got to her feet.  Ciara grinned at her friend and bent down to quickly gather her book bag.  A moment later she jumped up, ready to go.  Brennan led the way down the auditorium's center aisle, up the side steps, onto the stage, and through the emergency exit towards the back of the theater.  Once they were off campus, Ciara opened her book bag and started rummaging through the contents.  "What are these things again?"

"Jarasom demons," Gavin answered automatically.  "Fierce, lethal, and to the point."

Ciara glanced up at the shaggy brunette.  "How do we kill it?"

"Your basic hack and slash," Gavin smiled.

Ciara grinned back at her friend before pulling a large knife from her book bag.  "All right, then."


	5. Chapter Four

"Hey, I'm home!" Ciara yelled as she walked through the kitchen door.  She went straight for the refrigerator and smiled when she found a can of Ginger Ale waiting for her.  

"How was school?"  Ciara jumped as Angel slid into the room, followed closely by Buffy.

"Boring," Ciara muttered.  She grabbed the can of soda and popped the tab open.  She looked at her parents questioningly.  "Why are you _both_ here?"

"Uncle Wesley, Aunt Cordelia, Uncle Gunn, and Aunt Fred came in today," Angel replied as he turned his attention to a large pot of boiling water on the stove.  "Where's Brennan?"

"He's at work," Ciara replied automatically.  The five teens posed as Bruce's employees to help explain their busy schedules.  Marnee had thought it up when their parents had begun to act suspicious of their children's shifty behavior.  It satisfied their parents' curiosity and also supplied the teens with small but rewarding paychecks, courtesy of the Watcher's Council.  

Ciara took a drink of her soda and swallowed it.  "Why are the LA people here?  And where are Charlie, Ricky, and Di?"

Buffy scowled.  "They came in about some business.  Charlie's work as his math professor's head TA has got him completely overworked and Diana and Ricky have already missed too much school to come down now.  They might be around later this weekend for Gavin's party but it depends."

Ciara's doubtful expression instantly vanished.  "Oh.  So, where is everybody?"

"They took Doyle and Liam to the park," Angel looked up and smiled.  "You know Cordelia."

Ciara nodded.  "Who exactly is coming down for Gav's party?  Is…Connor coming home?"

"He can't," Buffy answered as she opened the refrigerator.  She quickly perused its contents before pulling out a can of Coke.  "But he did promise to come home for Christmas."

Ciara sighed glumly.  "Oh.  Well, I gotta get to work. Just came by to grab a few things."

Angel looked up and nodded.  "Bye."

Ciara turned with a small wave and started for the front door.  She was already pulling it open when Buffy hurried after her.  "Ciara, wait."

Ciara paused at the door.  She turned to face her mother.  "What?"

"I talked with Willow this morning," Buffy said, keeping her tone and expression neutral.  "She said she caught Marnee sneaking in after curfew last night.  Again."

Ciara raised her eyebrows at her mother.  "Really?"

"Don't treat me like an idiot, Ciara," Buffy warned in a low voice.  "I just want a straight answer.  Were you with Marnee last night?"

Ciara smiled and shrugged.  "Mom, you saw me go to bed yourself."

"That's not an answer," Buffy said unhappily.  "When are you going to grow up and realize that these childish stunts are bad ideas."

Ciara's smile vanished.  "Hey, Mom, talk it over with Marnee.  Save the lectures for when you catch me, okay?"

"So there's something to catch?" Buffy asked with an eyebrow raised.  Her expression darkened with concern and Buffy reached out to place a supportive hand on her daughter's shoulder.  "I'm not blind to the world, you know.  You're only seventeen.  I remember seventeen.  Let me say, in a very big understating way, that my seventeenth year was not my best."

Ciara sighed and jerked away.  This was beginning to sound very familiar.  "Mom, can we not do this?  I have to go to work."

Buffy retreated back a step with a hurt look.  "You know, Ciara, you can tell me things.  I'm here for you.  I want to know."

Ciara rolled her eyes and walked through the door.  Ironically, both women were thinking the exact same thought as the gulf between them widened.  _She would never understand_.

**~~~**

The meeting at Bruce's started when Ciara arrived, late.  Bruce explained to them, in great detail, about the Gummie and what it would attempt.  He then went over the plan they would use to defeat it.

"So you're basically telling us to step up Patrol until the new moon?"  Marnee couldn't believe how terribly simple this battle sounded.  Over the past couple of years they had all faced much worse evils than this.

Bruce nodded.  "Basically."

"Are you sure?" Gavin asked in disbelief.  "'Cause the way you said Gummie and the bad vibe I've been getting lately have me pretty worked up.  If this is it, I'd just like to say _anticlimactic_."

Bruce sighed, beginning to feel the faintest hints of frustration.  "Well, the Gummie is a definite threat that you should take very seriously, but as far as it's concerned, we just wait."  

Brennan watched as Bruce shifted in his seat.  That was always a bad sign.  Brennan's suspicions were confirmed when the older man reached up and scratched his bald crown.  "Bruce, it's not nice to keep secrets.  Now truth or dare?"

Bruce frowned at the boy.  Then, with great reluctance, he sighed.  "I received a rather odd and mildly disturbing telephone call from the Council.  They said some old troublemakers were likely to show up sometime soon trying to play hero.  They want you to remain as far from this group as possible."

"What?" Ciara asked, confused.  "What do you mean?"

"They weren't overly clear on the matter," Bruce admitted.  He sat back against his seat.  "They didn't say exactly who or what.  But they stressed the importance of you not being involved with them.  They said it could throw you off."

Jake raised his eyebrows, fighting the urge to smile.  "Should we feel threatened?"

Bruce smiled and shook his head.  "Oh, goodness, no.  Just a few older folks wanting to relive their glory days.  The Council was just concerned that they might make things a bit more shaky than they already are."

Gavin rolled his eyes.  "Oh joy."

Bruce smiled at him.  "I wouldn't worry about it.  Just concentrate tonight on patrolling.  Even if these old fighters do turn up the most harm they could do is get in the way."

**~~~**

After a brief training session, all five teenagers left The Quill and Parchment energized and ready for what the night would bring.  Only Gavin seemed worried.  He knew something strange was going to happen.  He could feel it on the edge of his being.  Something was gathering, anxious.  Something was going to happen.

"Earth to Gavin.  Come in Gavin."  Gavin blinked as he realized that Marnee was waving her hand in front of his face.  She smiled when she saw that she had his attention.  "You okay there, Mr. Compass?"

Gavin frowned at Marnee's old nickname for him and began to follow the group up the street toward their neighborhood.  "Yeah, I'm fine.  Sorry."

Jake looked the boy over and noted that he was a bit twitchy.  "What's up, Gav?"

Gavin opened his mouth, then hesitated.  "I don't know.  Nothing, probably.  I just…feel weird.  Like something is going to happen…that things are going to change."

"That's nice and foreboding," Brennan muttered and rolled his eyes.

Ciara smiled at Gavin.  "You sure that you're not just having butterflies about your birthday?  Hey, I know something that will cheer you up."

Gavin grinned weakly.  "I'm supposed to say 'what' now, right?"

Ciara cocked her head, knowingly.  "Uncle Wes, Aunt Cordy, Uncle Gunn, and Aunt Fred are in town."

They all liked Cordelia, Wesley, Gunn, and Fred.  Cordelia was an interesting person.  She was great, fun, and famous.  She had been the star of all sorts of movies and now hosted her own talk show _Tact? I'll Pass!_.  It was number one in its target audience.  Wesley was a political consultant of some sort.  He knew a lot of famous people.  He just laughed and said he "had connections."  Fred was a professor of quantum physics.  She had been nominated for the Nobel Prize, but had yet to win it.  Gunn was head of security for a major motion picture company.

Gavin stopped walking and gawked at her.  "You wait till now to say this?"

"Seriously?" Marnee asked.  "Are Charlie, Ricky, and Di with them?"

Ciara shook her head.  "Nope.  Just the aunts and uncles.  They said the others might be down this weekend for the party, but I wouldn't hold my breath."

"Where are they staying?"  Brennan asked, still glowing from the pleasant surprise.

"Maybe with us, but I'm not sure," Ciara answered.  "Want to go see them?"

Jake cocked his head at her.  "Do you have to ask?"

They all quickly walked over to Ciara and Brennan's house, making the ten-minute walk in two.  Ciara pushed open the front door and bounded inside.  "We're ho…"

Ciara's broad smile vanished as she turned into the large living room and saw her parents sitting silently inside along with Xander, Anya, Willow, Oz, Dawn, and the group from Los Angeles.  The parents of the five teens didn't even look up as their children walked through the front door.

Cordelia, Wesley, Fred, and Gunn, who had all been sharing the large sleeper sofa, rose from their seats smiling at the teens awkwardly.  Cordelia walked over to Ciara and gave her a light hug.  "Hey, honey.  Wow, you've all grown so much since we last saw you."

Ciara returned the hug, never taking her eyes from the grave face of her mother.  "Hi, Aunt Cordy.  Did someone die or something?"

Wesley looked over his shoulder at his friends.  "Oh, well, that's something you will have to discuss with your parents.  Hello, Marina, how are you?"

Marnee forced a smile as she hugged Wesley.  "Oh, I'm good.  How are you?  Haven't seen you for a few months."

"Not since Ricky's birthday," Gunn said with a grin.  He slapped Gavin on the shoulder.  "How you doing, Gav?  Big eighteen coming up!"

"Yeah," Gavin half-smiled, resisting the urge to rub his now sore arm.

Behind Gavin, Jake cocked his head.  "Uncle Gunn.  Aunt Fred.  Good to see you.  Been trying to get that lout of a son you have on the phone for days now."

Fred shook her head.  "Well, ya know Charlie.  Busy as a bee, but likin' the work.  I'll let him know you're lookin' for him.  He's been calling every other day chirpin' about how he never gets to talk to you all anymore.  But he's gonna come down for Christmas a week or so after Lexie and Joyce.  Those two have been keeping me and Cordelia busy, what with the shoppin' and all for the Christmas Ball.  Cordelia got us gals the tickets, you know, and we're just pleased as plums."

All five teens smiled widely as they listened to Fred ramble.  She had always been that way, but her way of talk seemed to fade as time went by.  Every once in a while they would catch glimpses of that old Fred and they all reveled in it.

A low cough snapped all nine back to reality.  Buffy stood in the middle of the living room, looking very grim.  "Guys, it's almost time for us to go out.  Could you give us a moment alone with the kids?  We need to have a word with Brennan, Gavin, Marnee, and Ciara."

Cordelia, Gunn, Fred, and Wesley nodded their understanding and slipped silently from the room.  A moment later Dawn rose and began to follow.  "I think I'll just go see to Jenny and David."

Dawn disappeared into the hallway, leaving the children alone with their grim parents.  Xander shifted in his seat on the love seat pointing at the sofa as he commanded the children with his eyes.  "Have a seat."

Ciara and Marnee stepped further inside the room and sat down in the middle of the sofa, Brennan and Gavin taking protective positions at their sides.  Jake, curious and a bit alarmed at the adults' actions, leaned against the wall to the left of the group.  

Willow stood beside Buffy, glaring down sternly at the four teens seated before her.  "I received a visit from Principal McDavid today.  He told me that you each missed some classes."

Marnee's eyes widened as she realized why the parents were acting so upset.  She cleared her throat, trying to remain calm.  "Mom, I know what you're thinking but…"

"No, Marnee!" Willow snapped at her daughter.  She took a step back and held out her hands in front of her, as if shielding herself from an invisible foe.  "We don't want to hear any more lies."

Brennan leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees, looking to his left at his friends.  Gavin met Brennan's eyes and gave a small shrug as Ciara stared at the floor chewing on her lip.  A glimpse at Jake told Brennan that the older boy had realized the large amount of trouble his four younger friends were in.  

Angel watched the children's eyes dart around the room as if searching for a hidden answer to their problem.  He could almost see them working out the lie that they hoped would save them from their parents' wrath.  He could only stare in amazement as his own son and daughter's gazes looked to the ceiling, the floor, the corners, anywhere but at him or Buffy, panic and deceit quickly filling their eyes.  He sighed and sat back into his favorite leather chair, suddenly feeling every year of his unnaturally long life weighing down upon him.  "I thought we discussed this before.  You might be seniors but that doesn't give you a free reign."

Brennan looked up at him, determined to play out his innocent act.  "I know, Dad, but you have to understand…"

"We understand well enough, Bren," Buffy cut her son off coldly.  "Your father and I were young once too, you know.  But this is completely inexcusable.  We had an agreement.  You promised us that if we cut back on your boundaries, if we forgot about the past troubles, then you would stop this kind of stupid behavior and take more responsibility!  Now, mere weeks after that last incident _with the police_, you're breaking curfew, skipping school…"

"Every time…_every_ time something happens, this is the pattern we all fall into," Oz murmured, his soft voice laced with unusual anger.  "What will it be this time?  It's always worse than the previous encounter."

"And last time it was possible involvement in the assault of a pregnant woman and her three children!" Anya nearly screeched.  She stared at the guilty faces of the teenagers and shook her head, pounding her fist on the arm of the loveseat.  "What's next?  Robbery?  _Murder_?"

Gavin nearly jumped out of his seat.  "Mom, you know we would never, _ever_, hurt anyone!  We were just witnesses."

"At this point, I don't care about the woman," Buffy stared at the teenagers furiously.  "Skipping school has always been a nonnegotiable no-no in this house."

Ciara looked to her mother in desperation.  "This wasn't something we could get out of.  We _had_ to do this."

"Ciara, you're seventeen," Buffy smiled bitterly.  "It isn't going to kill you to act like an adult.  It's not the end of the world."

Gavin looked up at Buffy with wide eyes.  He shook his head as he thought the statement over.  He smiled sadly and gave a short chuckle.  The adults stared at the boy incredulously as the hollow laughter echoed through the room.  Gavin looked up at the group of adults with weary eyes.  "The end of the world, eh?  Not to worry.  Not until we've kicked it."

Gavin continued to chuckle under his breath.  Xander watched his eldest son, his anger growing at the boy's attitude.  "You think this is funny, son?  You think this is a joke?"

Gavin didn't lose his temper easily, but for some reason he snapped.  He stood, upset nearly to the point of tears.  "Yeah, I do!  You couldn't possibly understand what any of us are going through!  Did it ever occur to you that we might be experiencing a bit more than other kids experience?"

"Gavin!" Anya looked at her child, shocked.  "Do not raise your voice to your father."

"No!" Marnee rose to her feet and stood beside her friend.  Gavin slumped against her as she stood between him and the adults angrily.  "Gavin's right!  We're having a really rough time right now and you all are certainly not making it any easier."

For a brief moment Willow saw something shine through her daughter's cover of anger and confusion.  It was fear.  It was pain.  Willow's heart broke as she reached a hand out and gently smoothed the girl's hair out from in front of her eyes.  "Marnee, baby, if you would just talk to us, make us understand, then maybe we could help."

"And a lot of help you all could be, too," Marnee replied softly as she and Gavin returned to their seats, exhausted. 

"Mom, Dad, fellow members of the Inquisition," Jake said loudly as he straightened from where he had been leaning against the wall quietly.  The adults turned to the young man.  He shrugged nervously as he indicated himself.  "I know I'm not the most objective, but in their defense they really are going through some tough times.  It's really not anything you can relate…"

Oz shook his head as he regarded his eldest child.  "Jake…why don't you go back to the dorms?  We know you're a part of this.  We called the University.  We'll talk to you later."

Jake looked to his friends.  Marnee and Gavin had again taken their seats beside Brennan and Ciara.  Although he doubted their parents could see it, all four were supporting each other.  Brennan's gaze locked with Jake's and an understanding passed between them.  Jake looked once more to the parents and aunts and uncles he cherished but with whom he was deeply frustrated, then reluctantly left the house.  Once outside, he lingered for a few minutes at the window to hear what would happen to his friends.

The four remaining teens sat quietly as Angel rounded on them.  "This is the last straw.  We've had it.  The skipping, the rule breaking, the fighting, the lies.  We've raised you better than this. You _know_ better.  We've all discussed it.  You're all grounded.  One month.

Brennan, who had been listening to the exchange quietly, looked up sharply.  He shot up from the couch, unable to believe his ears.  "We're _GROUNDED_?!  You can't be serious!"

"We can't be grounded," Marnee stressed vehemently.  "Please.  Anything else.  This is a really important week."

"Yeah," Gavin nodded.  "Can't you just…spank us?  Spare the rod, spoil the child!"

Ciara's eyes went wide as she also stood in frustration.  "Listen, we're really sorry but this isn't the time…"

"I can't think of a better time," Buffy frowned as she watched them.  "This punishment stands.  If you want to argue we could extend it to three months."

The teenagers all looked at one another.  Ciara and Brennan both sat back down then all four became still.  They all looked away, each unwilling to meet the adults' gazes, silently surrendering themselves to their parents.

Angel watched their resignation and, not sure of what else to say, wrapped his arm around his wife's waist.  "Now, we have to go out for a short time.  Dawn and Fred are going to stay here with you and the others.  Ciara, you and Marnee stay in your room.  Brennan, you and Gavin take yours.  If we find that you gave them any trouble while we were away, there'll be hell to pay.  Now upstairs, all of you, and be quiet.  The twins and the baby are already asleep."

Looking at the adults helplessly, they each rose from their seats.  As they marched out of the room Brennan cast a glance out the window.  The bush just under the sill rustled quietly and the shadow of a shadow made its way stealthily across the front lawn.  Brennan suppressed a grin and followed his friends as they walked slowly up the stairs and out of sight.  

As soon as the adults heard the last door slam shut they relaxed.  Xander sighed and sprawled out in his chair.  "I honestly don't think that could have went worse."

"They could have all been in a cult that worships Satan," Oz said quietly.

"Thank you, Oz," Xander said as he rubbed his face with his hands.

"He always does that," Cordelia said as she, Wesley and Gunn walked back into the room, dressed and armed for Patrol.  She threw a duffel bag at Angel while she looked around.  "Why does he always do that?"

Willow forced a small smile.  "That's my Oz."

"Fred and Dawn are in the dining room playing Monopoly with David and Jenny," Gunn announced to anyone who would listen.  "I think that David and Jen are gonna kill the girls."

Angel rummaged through the duffel, withdrawing several stakes, a crucifix, a bottle of holy water, and a large knife.  He turned to hand the bag to Buffy but stopped when he saw her.  She was looking at the stairs, staring at where the teenagers had disappeared from sight.  He gently nudged her.  She looked at him with wide eyes and then down at the bag.  Angel held it out.  "Here."

Buffy took the bag from her husband and looked at it as if she didn't know what it was.  After a moment she started to go through the motions of preparing for Patrol.  As she slid the last stake up her jacket sleeve, she glanced up to see her husband do the same.  Her stomach tightened as she thought about the teenagers in the rooms upstairs.  She glanced at the ceiling and fought back the tears.  Angel saw it.  He stepped towards Buffy, wrapping his arms around her protectively, and held her close.  "It's all right.  They'll be safe here.  Nothing can harm them and Fred and Dawn will be right here."

Buffy shook her head, biting her lip to keep from crying.  They had all been relieved when they had learned the kids had skipped school again.  It gave them a reason to ground them.  But they hadn't expected that kind of reaction.  Buffy had recognized some of the emotions that played across her children's faces.  "They're scared, Angel.  They're scared, and they're hurt, and they're all alone.  Someone's scaring my babies.  Some bastard is hurting my babies!"

"You're right, Buffy.  But we can't do anything about it.  They won't trust us."  Angel hugged his wife closer.  He had sensed it, for a long time now.  Something wasn't right with his son and daughter.  And knowing that he couldn't fix it terrified him more than anything he had ever faced.

The withdrawal had been slow.  Buffy and Angel had enjoyed a close relationship with their children since they had been born.  Everyone knew that Marnee and Jake had received constant attention from the doting Willow and Oz.  Xander and Gavin had been like two peas in a pod when the boy was younger and the boy had been very close to Anya.  But once they had all entered high school something had gone terribly wrong.

They had all thought at first that the kids were just having a hard time adjusting to high school.  They had thought it was just a phase.  But one by one they had slipped away.  

Gavin went first.  He kept coming up with more and more excuses to be away from Xander and Anya.  After a few months Xander learned to stop asking what his son wanted to do that weekend.  Gavin was the first of the kids to become hostile with his parents and the first to get in trouble at school.

The twins went next.  At first no one had noticed it, figuring it was their ever approaching freedom from high school and Sunnydale.  But soon they were just as secretive as their brother.  While away at school they barely ever called and when home, they only became chatty with the teenagers.

Next went Jake, but that had been easily blamed first on the troubles of being an upperclassman, then on college.  It was the same, though.  The same rift that seemed to be growing between Gavin, Lexie, and Joyce and their parents.  Willow and Oz had done the only thing they had known to do: they ignored it.

By ignoring it all Willow and Oz did was create a vortex that claimed Marnee.  Once they had realized what had happened, it had been a real blow to them.  Jake was almost understandable since he was preparing to go to college, but the loss of sweet little Marnee had been shocking.

By that time Buffy and Angel had realized that Brennan and Ciara were starting to shut them out too.  They had made every attempt that they could think of, but nothing could prevent the inevitable.  Brennan and Ciara pulled away from Buffy and Angel more completely than any of the other kids had from their parents.

Once they disconnected themselves from their families, the kids seemed to bond more closely with each other than they had before.  It was the small comfort that their parents took.  They all loved their nieces and nephews and they had always hoped they would be as close as the Scoobies had been and still were.

The troubles had started right after that.  It had started with a bit of mild skipping.  A class here, a class there.  Then they started sneaking out at night.  Even with their strict rules, no one knew where any of them were half the time.  The lies had been disturbing.  At first the teens were terrible at it but after a while no one had been able to tell when any of them were lying or not.  Then they had started getting in fights.  The police had even questioned the teens on more than one occasion concerning assaults and vandalism.

None of the gang had known what to do.  Try as they might they couldn't get any of the kids to open up.  Whenever they did exchange words for over ten minutes, it was an argument.  None of them knew what to do, and every day it was getting worse.

Buffy pulled away from her husband.  Her face was tense but she was under control.  She turned to see the others looking at her grimly.  Willow was near tears.  Anya was hugging herself tightly.  Xander was visibly upset and Oz was wearing a pained expression.  Cordelia, Wesley, and Gunn were also obviously worried for their nieces and nephews.

Buffy looked at them, then forced a smile and she picked up her favorite stake.  "Let's go."


	6. Chapter Five

**Disclaimer:  I own: the kids, the story, the bowl of ice cream I'm eating and a little snow-globe of Tinkerbelle.  I do not own:  Tinkerbelle, the bowl I'm eating the ice cream out of, or _Buffy, the Vampire Slayer_ or _Angel_.**

"When have we ever been grounded?" Gavin muttered as he threw a tennis ball at the door.  It hit the door and bounced back to where he was sitting on Brennan's bed.

Brennan snorted at his friend.  "Do you really want me to answer that?"

Gavin laughed, too, in spite of himself.  "I meant when have we ever been so severely punished for something so trivial?"

Brennan shrugged.  He leaned back against his headboard while he played his old Gameboy.  They had been locked away in the room for the past hour.  The sun had set over twenty minutes ago and they were both getting antsy.

"I mean, it was one class!" Gavin continued grumbling.  "One stupid class.  And of course they go completely Nazi on us.  I wish they would just loosen up.  Even if things were normal they'd still be suffocating us.  What eighteen-year-old has a curfew of nine o'clock?  On a weekend!"

Brennan grinned at his friend as Gavin threw the ball again, easily catching it.  Brennan shook his head as he watched Gavin's fingers clench and unclench.  "It is ridiculous, but there isn't much we can do about it.  I gave up that battle long ago.  It isn't one we'll be able to win without disowning our families."

Gavin dropped the tennis ball as a shudder ran through him.  He slowly turned and faced Brennan, his eyes full of fear.  "Don't even joke about that, man.  Way not funny."

Brennan glanced up at Gavin sheepishly.  "Sorry.  I've just tried this one before.  It's no good.  And you know the more times we get in trouble, the worse they're gonna be."

"And we'll keep getting into trouble because it goes hand in hand with being the Warriors," Gavin said as he bent over and scooped the ball back off the floor.  "It just gets to me.  All their talk of growing up and being responsible when we actually carry the fate of the world on our shoulders."  

"Speaking of which, you lost it!" Brennan said as he began his reprimand.  "If any of them had thought over what you were babbling about then they would know something is up."

"Yeah, yeah, I know," Gavin said.  "I didn't mean to go all Mr. Hyde but the whole end-of-the-world thing just hit a nerve.  Sometimes I wish we could just tell…"

"No," Brennan cut the boy off.

"I get it," Gavin replied.  "If we tell them we would just be endangering them…"

"And don't forget the whole freak out factor.  They would probably figure us for crazies then move us a billion miles from the Hellmouth."  Brennan glanced at the old digital clock on his nightstand and sighed.  "32 minutes."  

"Okay, it has never taken Jake this long to get here with the stupid ladder," Gavin muttered.  He threw the tennis ball again.

As if on cue, Jake stuck his head through the open window.  "Hey guys.  Miss me?"

Gavin rolled his eyes as Jake dropped a large duffel bag in through the window.  Gavin grabbed the bag and threw it on the bed.  He unzipped it and quickly pulled out a pair of dark jeans, a black sweater, and a black turtleneck.  Gavin tossed the sweater to Brennan as he tore off his school clothes.  They grabbed their black leather jackets from the floor.  It took the boys seconds to dress for Patrol.

Gavin looked back in the duffel and pulled out his weapons of choice.  He strapped a special belt that held several stakes around his waist then pulled his shirt down to hide it.  In his inside jacket pocket he placed a large crucifix and a vial of holy water.

Brennan also put on his own stake belt just under his shirt.  Instead of a large wooden crucifix, he grabbed his necklace from his dresser.  His parents had gotten him the silver cross and chain as a birthday present.  It hung down to the top of his stomach.  He also grabbed from the bag his latest gift from Bruce: a special-made razor sharp wooden knife.

As soon as they were both ready Brennan locked his bedroom door and turned out all the lights.  He set his stereo on continuous repeat as the long track of deep breathing and occasional snoring started to play.  Anyone who walked by the room would figure the boys were already asleep.

Gavin climbed out the window and slid down the ladder.  He was followed by Brennan.  He found the others were already outside.  Jake, always the one to be different, was wearing back jeans and a black retro shirt with the words "I see stupid people" shining on the front in bloody letters.  Gavin knew that Jake also had a hidden belt of stakes but was amused to find his friend also carrying the crossbow he had saved up for last year.

Marnee was wearing a midnight-blue peasant top and dark blue jeans.  She had covered her fiery red hair with a matching dark lacey scarf.  The boys knew that she had her own belt, but, while it held a few stakes, it mainly contained little compartments that separated basic magic necessities. 

Ciara was wearing a silky black halter under her fleece jacket.  Instead of jeans, she wore skintight black stretch pants.  Her belt held stakes as well as a beautiful oriental knife.

Ciara's hands were on her hips.  "Finally you decide to grace us with your presence."

Gavin bowed.  "Sorry, mi lord and ladies.  Dumb ass here was the one that took forever.  He had to check that everything was secure three times before he was satisfied."

"I was just being thorough," Brennan retorted.  He turned to Jake.  "Did you talk to Bruce?"

Jake nodded as the group started to walk away from the house.  "He wants us to concentrate on places like the parks, warehouses, the Bronze.  You know.  The easier hunting grounds that newbies to town will most likely go to.  He also said to check the bus station and the docks for any other arriving guests."

"Okay, the parks get my first vote," Gavin half-skipped beside Marnee.

Ciara nodded.  "I second."

Brennan grinned as they headed for the closest park.  "I guess we have a winner."

Jake also smiled as he saw some shifting shadows in the distance.  "And now for our lovely parting gift."

**~~~**

"Gavin, do you sense anything?" Brennan whispered to the boy in front of him.  They were on their third park and had already dusted nine vamps.  Things were definitely hopping in Sunnydale.

Gavin hesitated, grimacing.  "There's something funny ahead."

Jake, whose mood had soured after their last encounter when Gavin had "forgotten" to back him up, glared at the younger boy as the entire group came to a halt.  "Funny ha-ha or funny we're all gonna die long painful deaths?"

"I'm not sure," Gavin mumbled.  He closed his eyes in concentration.  "It feels really familiar, though."

Marnee pulled her strawberry sucker out of her mouth.  "Mmm.  Vampire?"

They looked at Gavin who shrugged uncertainly.  "It's not like any demon I've ever sensed before.  I think it's about twenty feet away."

They all tensed, having learned long ago that if Gavin didn't know what a thing was then the situation was not good.  Ciara shivered, the air suddenly feeling a lot cooler than it should have been.  "Could it be human?"

Gavin raised his arms up high, thoroughly exasperated.  "How many times do I have to say it?  I don't…wait.  Okay, people.  A group of six vamps coming through loud and clear.  Plus the weird thing."

"I would like to know what this weird thing is," Jake whispered as he reloaded his crossbow.

Gavin furrowed his brow in frustration.  "The best way I can describe it is part human, part vamp, part demon, that kinda, I dunno, glows."

Brennan patted his friend on the shoulder.  "Well, thanks for narrowing it down."

Gavin smirked at him.  "Well, there are definitely vamps in the mix."

Ciara smiled and rotated her shoulders.  "Good.  I need to vent some pent up anger."

The five teens moved quickly but silently to where Gavin directed them.  Brennan pulled a stake from his belt and got ready.  They waited, hidden from view by bushes until they all heard sounds of a struggle.

They jumped out of the bushes into an already ongoing fray.  Brennan was the first to encounter a vampire. He easily blocked a punch aimed for his head.  The vamp was dust before it could react.

Ciara was to the right taking two vamps at once.  Brennan noted that she was fine.  Behind him he heard Jake and Marnee chanting in some strange language.  Brennan recognized the spell as a living barrier that would keep their foes from running away.  To Brennan's left Gavin fell to the ground as the vampire beneath him crumbled to dust.

Brennan heard the air part behind him and he turned in time to block a menacing sidekick.  He fell to the ground, his right leg lashing out to bring his opponent down with him.  The large male fell backwards and Brennan leapt on top of him, stake at the ready.

"Brennan!  No!"  Ciara's cry made Brennan freeze.

The stake stopped centimeters from making contact with the heart.  Brennan stared confused at the man underneath him.  "Dad?"

Angel looked up at his son, confusion and horror on his face.  He tried to say something but before he could, something grabbed Brennan from behind. 

Angel watched the vampire's hands wrap around his child's head.  "Brennan!"

Out of the darkness Marnee's voice rang out.  "Goddess Artemis, queen of the night, I implore thee, still thy unworthy child's hand!"

A bolt of magical energy hit the vampire and he froze for a split second.  Brennan used that time to wrench out of the creature's grasp.  The vampire looked at the boy on the ground, confused, as Ciara walked up behind him and calmly staked her brother's would-be captor.  Brennan rolled out of the way, but not quickly enough.  He coughed as he accepted his sister's out-stretched arm.  She helped him up and he stood, wiping the ancient dust off of himself.

"Thanks," he rasped to his sister.  She looked at her still hacking brother then motioned with her eyes around them.  Brennan finally was able to stop coughing and turned to look at what his sister had indicated.  He froze.  On Brennan's left, Gavin was still sitting on the ground with his mouth wide open.  Marnee and Jake, hands still clasped tightly together, were a few paces behind the gaping boy.  Ciara stood at Brennan's side staring at the scene around her.  At Brennan's feet, his father was struggling to sit up.  

The teenagers stood quietly as Buffy, Willow, Oz, Anya, Cordelia, Wesley, Gunn, and Xander circled around them. 


	7. Chapter Six

**Disclaimer:  I own nothing but the children.  I feel like Mother Goose.**

Buffy took in the sight of her eldest children standing before her.  They were completely dressed in black.  They were both still standing in a fighting stance, holding their stakes at the ready.  Buffy shook her head.  "No.  Oh, no."

Marnee and Jake released hands.  The adults felt the crackling magic that had surrounded them dissipate.  The brother and sister walked forward to stand beside Ciara and Brennan.  Gavin stood and joined his friends.  They, like the other two, were also dressed and armed for patrol.

Buffy felt Willow grab her arm for support.  She could hear her friend's breath becoming more and more ragged.  Buffy was verging on losing control herself.  "No!  No, no, no. NO!  Tell me you're on drugs.  Tell me you're in a gang.  Tell me anything, but don't tell me that one of you is the Slayer."

"Mom, I promise, we didn't want to sneak out but…what?  The Slayer?"  Brennan had been trying to think of something believable to say, but hearing his mother say such a thing confused him even more.  

Angel cleared his throat and Brennan turned towards his father.  He offered the older man his arm and easily pulled him to his feet.  Angel gawked at his son, refusing to release the boy's arm.  After a moment of study, he noticed a slight pooch under Brennan's shirt near his waist.  When he reached to lift Brennan's shirt up, the boy moved to stop him.  Ciara placed a hand on her brother's shoulder and he stilled allowing his father to raise the shirt up to reveal his hidden weapons.  Angel pulled a stake and the knife from their notches and held them up as proof for the others.  "It's not just a matter of being or not being the Slayer, is it?"

Ciara's brow creased and she regarded her parents uncomfortably but calmly.  "The Slayer?  No.  They don't have a word for what we are."

Anya started to teeter.  Cordelia saw the woman begin to falter and she rushed forward and grabbed the ex-demon.  She wrapped a supportive arm around the blonde and she straightened.  The other adults stared at the children in horror.

Jake cleared his throat.  "Bruce just calls us Warriors, but I don't think he really knows either."

Buffy felt Willow crumble beside her.  She hit the ground hard, choking as the tears poured from her eyes.  Oz rushed towards her from his position beside Xander and sat down beside her, wrapping his arms around his sobbing wife.

Buffy stared down at the ground and fought hard for control.  After a few moments, she looked up, searching for the comfort that Angel's presence had always given.  Her eyes met his and she saw the same miserable horror reflected in them that she was feeling at that moment.

Gavin cast a worried glance at Willow and Oz before awkwardly waving his hand.  "Um, hey.  Crazy parents.  What are you doing here and how do you know about Slayers?  I mean, you were fighting, right?  Did they jump you?  Are you okay?"

Xander stared at Gavin.  "You…you fought them.  Why?"

Gavin shrugged.  "It's kind of hard to explain.  The short version?  We were chosen to do this.  What are you doing?"

Xander nodded slowly and, ignoring his son's question, turned and punched the closest tree.  Thankfully, it was a softwood tree that bent before it could break his fingers, but it tore at his skin.  He didn't make any noise as his knuckles scraped over the rough bark and started to ooze out blood. 

The teens jumped, startled at Xander's outburst.  Buffy watched Xander stare at his bleeding hand and knew how he felt.  She looked at her the group of five teens, the babies she had known and cared for since they were born.  "How long?

"Almost three…well, uh…over three years," Brennan answered confused.

Buffy shook her head.  _Years_.  She should have known better.  She should have realized.  The fighting, the nightly disappearances, the distant behavior…it was exactly how the Scoobies had acted in high school.  She couldn't believe they had all been so blind.  She just hadn't seen…hadn't wanted to see.  

Buffy and the rest of the gang had worried about the children being different when they were all born.  But when none of them had shown any type of abnormal behavior they had all thought their children were normal.  Buffy realized now that they had been stupid to believe that the children of an ex-vampire and a Slayer, a witch and a werewolf, and an ex-vengeance demon could ever be normal.  They all should have moved the moment they found out they were having children.

Wesley was trying to think clearly, mainly for the sake of his friends.  "You're Warriors?  What do you mean by that?"

"Well," Marnee began then hesitated.  The explanation included creatures and things that none of the older people should have known about.  But Marnee knew she had heard Buffy and Angel say the word 'Slayer', and they had all been out here fighting vampires.  And she thought she saw a stake in her father's…paw.  Trying to block out what that might mean, she decided to just tell them.  "It's complicated.  Bruce was sent here by the Watcher's Council.  The Council is a group of adults that are sort of our bosses.  He said they had sensed our…unique gifts.  Anyways, Bruce taught us how to control our gifts then trained us to use them to fight evil.  Evil as in vampires, demons, forces of darkness.  Believe us when we say they're all real."

"Oh, god," Willow sobbed loudly from where she crouched on the ground.  

Marnee threw up her hands in panic.  "Now, just wait a second before you say we're crazy.  Just think about what attacked you, okay?  Inhuman face, pointy teeth?  Now, where was I?  Okay, back to us.  We're not like other humans.  We have special…talents.  No one really knows why we're different.  I mean we aren't Slayers, the regular defenders of humanity.  Bruce has this theory that it's because we were born and raised on the Hellmouth, that is, Sunnydale.  Remind me to explain about the Hellmouth in a minute.  Well, Bruce thinks that our bodies have taken some kind of natural leap in evolution.  Jake and I can easily do witchcraft and we have sharpened senses of perception."

"And we can run away fast," Jake added.

"And we can run away…hey!" Marnee shot her brother a withering look.  He grinned and shrugged.  She turned her attention back to the adults who just stared at her unhappily.  "Well, Gavin and, when they're around, Lexie and Joyce have a strange sixth sense about them that lets them pick up on demonic energies.  And Ciara and Brennan are…"

"Strong," Angel finished.  "They have strength, agility, and healing powers like the Slayer.  Or a vampire."  He looked at Buffy.  "Or both."

Ciara brightened.  "Exactly."  Then she frowned again.  "You guys don't seem too confused by any of this.  How do you know…"

"Well, well, well.  If it isn't the entire Sunnyhell gang.  Complete with new miniature versions."  Buffy groaned loudly as a young-looking bleached blonde emerged from the shadows.  He looked around the group.  "What, Slayer, no hello for the prodigal big bad?  Shame.  Are these the kids?  They've really grown…"

Gavin stiffened and turned to shout at his friends as he dropped to the ground.  "Vampire!"

Marnee and Jake's hands flew together.  Ciara and Brennan dove out of the way as Marnee pointed her hand straight at the whit-headed vampire.  "Goddess Hecate, work thy will.  Before thee let the unclean thing crawl!"

They all watched as Spike disappeared into his clothing.  Ciara sat up and groaned loudly.  "A rat _again_, Marnee?  Do you know how hard it is to stake a rat?"

Marnee shrugged sheepishly.  "Sorry.  It's my failsafe spell.  Safest and most effective."

Jake watched as the white rat began to poke its way out of the clothing.  He glanced at his sister with an eyebrow raised.  "Interesting choice.  I would have gone with the Reverse Eye Glamour, but to each his own."

Brennan rolled his eyes at the pair.  Stooping over the pile of dark clothing, he picked the rat up by its tail and held it out about a foot in front of him.  He motioned to his sister.  "Your turn."

"As if!" Ciara nearly shrieked, her face twisted into a look of disgust.  "I did the mucus demon two weeks ago, thank you very much.  It's your turn for demon-rat slayage."

Brennan made a face at her and raised his stake.  Before he could kill the vampire-rat his father stilled his hand with his own.  "Don't.  He's harmless."

Brennan regarded his father, amused.  "Dad, I know this is a lot to take in, but this rat is a vampire."  Brennan thought over the sentence that had just come out of his mouth and looked to his friends.  "They're gonna commit us."

"Of all the ways I thought they would find out…" Ciara fought back a grin and shrugged.  

Brennan returned his attention to his father.  "Anyway, this thing is a vampire.  You know, a blood-sucking fiend from beyond the grave type vampire.  Keyword _vampire_.  Vampires are evil, hell-bent demons.  There aren't any exceptions."

Angel blanched at Brennan's words, but kept his hand where it was.  "Just trust me on this.  Marnee, change him back."

Marnee turned her head from Brennan to Angel, unsure of what to do.  After a moment of silence broken only by the frantic squeaking of the Spike-rat, Willow stood and numbly turned her attention to the rat.  "Hecate!  I hereby license thee to depart.  Goddess of creatures great and small, I conjure thee to withdraw."

With a flash of light, the vampire returned to his original and very naked form.  He looked down and yelped as he grabbed his clothing, desperately trying to cover himself.  "Why the bloody hell did you do that for?  Gawl, you people are the stupidest bints I've ever met!  I come back to ole Sunnyhell to help out the ole gang and how do you show your thanks?  By unleashing Red Junior on me!"

The teens watched, dumbstruck, as Spike quickly backed away to the bushes to redress.  Once he was out of sight, Marnee whirled on her mother.  "Okay, this is officially not fun anymore.  First, we catch you all fighting vamps, then you protect a rather...colorful vampire from us.  And Mom, when the hell did you learn magic?"

"Oh, god.  But...you would...god, no.  Unbelievable.  Absolutely unbelievable."  Gavin slowly shook his head as he looked at his parents.  "I don't think the old parental units have been completely honest with us.  I'm thinking that the whole deal with this being a random adaptation isn't exactly right.  I mean, shit, are you even human?"

Spike snorted as he reappeared.  "What, you mean your brats don't know?"

Buffy waved him away.  "Not now, Spike."

Spike grinned wickedly as realization lit in his eyes.  "This is rich.  None of you ever told them what you were?  What you are?  What the hell were you thinking, that they'd be normal little bastards?"

No one met his gaze.  Spike looked at the uncertain kids.  He shook his head.  "Oh yeah, I can see it now.  'They can be like regular little boys and girls and grow up and be accountants or something as equally boring.'  That's a hoot and a half.  Trying to spare them the pain?  Bet it was the Poof's idea."

Angel grabbed Spike by the throat and pinned him against the nearest tree.  "Spike, it's time for you to shut up!"

"Spike?" Brennan raised his eyebrows.  "William the Bloody?  Vampire circa eighteen and nineteen hundreds.  Earned his nickname from torturing his victims with railroad spikes.  Responsible for the elimination of two Slayers.  No reports since the turn of the century, believed dead after an encounter with the last Sunnydale Slayer."

Spike looked at the boy impressed.  "Fairly accurate, except the dead part.  I'm guessing by the look of you that you're Peaches' boy."  

Angel tightened his hold on Spike and growled menacingly.  "You will not go anywhere _near_ my children!"

"What, too good for me now, eh?"  Spike laughed.  "Don't go getting your knickers in a twist, Angelus.  I was just about to comment on how the boy thankfully didn't inherit your IQ.  He was smart enough to learn the truth about Sunnyhell by himself while his beloved parents were lying right to his face.  Enough to impress me."

The teens listened to the vampire's words.  He was right.  They had been lied to.  It would have been one thing if it had just been about protecting them from demons.  But their parents had obviously kept a great deal from them.  Not only did they know about the world of the paranormal, they were fighting it.  And Gavin had said before that something wasn't completely human.  

"They aren't human," Gavin repeated, vocalizing the thought in each teen's head.  "They aren't human.  We aren't…"  Gavin stopped, too emotional to continue.

_Their parents weren't human_.  Ciara repeated the thought over and over again in her head, her confusion melting away into disgust.  Their parents weren't human.  Which meant they weren't human.  They weren't human and their parents had deliberately tried to keep them from finding out.  

"Lies.  It's all _lies_."  Ciara inhaled sharply and looked around at the faces she had trusted all her life.  They were all looking back at her, pained.  She shook her head trying to block out the truth, even as anger and treachery began to course through her. "Everything I am, everything I know, all that you are.  It's all lies."

"What?"  Marnee forced a dismissive chuckle and shook her head.  "No.  Ciara, Gavin, you're talking crazy.  I think we would have noticed if our _parents_ weren't human.  Gavin, you would have felt it!"

"But he did," Jake said as he tried to find the logical answer in the mess.  "Gav's always jumpy at home.  Remember Ricky's party?  He kept insisting that something strange was somewhere in the building.  And the weird thing…"

"Is them."  Brennan clenched his fists as he stared at the ground.

"No!"  Marnee turned and looked at her parents, still sitting quietly on the ground.  "That can't be true.  Tell them.  Tell them that isn't true!"

All of the adults remained silent.  Marnee turned away as tears began to form in her eyes.  Brennan raised his gaze from the ground, hurt and anger burning through him as he looked at the uncertain form of his father.  A single tear silently rolled down Ciara's cheek as she stood furiously in front of Buffy.  Gavin looked away not able to meet any of the adults' eyes, feeling hurt and betrayed.  Jake's expression remained calm, but his eyes revealed the torrent of emotion the raced through him.

Buffy couldn't let this happen.  She took a step toward her daughter, her arm outstretched.  "Ciara, baby, it was for your own good.  We…"

Ciara wrenched away from her mother.  "Our own good?  You lied to us about who we are, about _what_ we are!  How could you?  Who do you think you are?"

Oz rose from his seat on the ground and walked up to Jake, hoping to get through to the young man's sense of logic.  "Jake, listen.  I know…"

Jake shook his head to silence his father.  "Just don't.  There's nothing you can say right now."

Oz studied the boy for a moment then, nodding his understanding, he returned to Willow's side.  Jake stepped over to Marnee and silently took his little sister's hand.  She looked up and nodded numbly.  Jake's eyes stayed on the younger girl as he called to his friends over his shoulder.  "It's still pretty early for vamps.  We still have work to do."

Gavin looked up at the parents and sighed.  "I say we head for the Bronze and the warehouses, then the docks.  It looks like the parks are adequately covered."  

The others nodded their agreement.  With one last glare, Brennan started out of the circle.  Jake followed, leading Marnee by the hand.  Gavin fell into step behind Jake while Ciara took up the rear.  Brennan led the way through the gap between Wesley and Angel.

Angel dropped Spike and turned to stop them.  "Now just wait a minute…"

Brennan pushed Angel aside with strength that neither he nor Buffy had ever possessed.  Angel sailed several feet through the air before hitting a tree and sliding to the ground.  Brennan smirked.  "Sorry, _Dad_.  Places to be.  So sad about the whole grounded thing.  Guess we're just a group of problem kids after all."

Ciara turned in mid-stride.  "Oh, and don't wait up.  We'll be out late."

The members of the former Scooby Gang stood and watched in helpless despair as their children disappeared into the dark to do battle with the night.


	8. Family Trees

More Author's Notes

****

Out of curiosity and a bit of boredom I've written a pre-quel series, _As the World Goes Round_. I started writing it after I finished the first draft of this. I had a lot of fun writing this story and it occurred to me, why not tell about some of the past of this strange family? You don't necessarily need to read this to read _As the World Goes Round_. You don't have to continue on to this after you read that series (although I recommend one or the other). I just thought it would be fun to show that I wasn't lying in this story. They were all one big happy family. It just illustrates that.  You can find it on my account.

Also, thanks to Dorothy, gel-gel, and Kristy Marie for their reviews.  Oh, and for Kristy Marie:

Angel and Buffy: 

**Brennan** Reese Angel, age 18

**Ciara** Shannon Angel, age 17

William Gillis AKA **Liam**, age 4

Allen Francis AKA **Doyle**, age 4****

****

**Xander and Anya**

Alexandra Anka Harris AKA **Lexie**, age 21

**Joyce** Summer Harris, age 21

Gavrilovich Spike Harris, AKA **Gavin**, age 17 (Gavin will turn 18 later in the story.  You'll also learn about his name.)

Jennifer Tara Harris AKA **Jenny**, age 14

Jesse Rupert Harris AKA **JR**, age 10 months

****

**Willow and Oz**

Jacob Nathaniel Osbourne AKA **Jake**, age 19

Marina Arlys Osbourne AKA **Marnee**, age 17

**David** Levi Osbourne, age 11

****

**Cordelia and Wesley**

**Diana** Faith Chase-Wyndam-Pryce, age 12 (Diana also known to go by **Di**.)

****

**Fred and Gunn**

Charles Gunn, Junior, AKA **Charlie**, age 20

Frederick Lorne Gunn AKA **Ricky**, age 9

**Names the kids go by in bold.  Ages reflect age at the time of the beginning of the story.

You haven't seen most of the kids yet.  You won't see much of Lexie, Joyce, Diana, Charlie, and Ricky in this story.  If I do a sequel (which is planned), you'll see them there.


	9. Chapter Seven

**Disclaimer:  See the Author's Notes.  Not mine, 'cept kids.**

Dawn sat on the couch in her sister's living room, studying the faces of her old friends.  They looked as if they had been through hell and back again.  It didn't surprise the former Key.  The group's worst nightmare had become a reality.

The gang had returned from Patrol extremely early, mere moments after Fred had sent Jenny and David to bed.  Dawn had been sitting in the dining room, sorting out the pieces of the various board games the pair of kids had beaten them at, when the front door had opened.  Buffy had ignored Dawn's enthusiastic greeting and had headed straight for the living room with Angel in tow.  Angel had sat in his old leather chair and pulled Buffy into his lap, holding her as she started to cry.

Dawn had watched, disturbed, as Xander stumbled in behind them, looking as if he wasn't entirely aware of his surroundings.  Wesley had followed, leading the man to the sofa and ordering him to sit.  Seconds later, Gunn half-carried Anya inside and sat her on the couch next to her husband.  Oz and Willow both acknowledged Dawn's presence with an unenthusiastic nod before joining the group in the living room.  

A noise on the stairs indicated Fred had also seen the depressing procession.  She ran down the stairs as Cordelia came in and shut the door.  

_"Cordelia, what happened?  Did someone die?"_

_ "No.  No one died.  We saw the kids."_

_ "The kids?  What kids?  All the kids are upstairs asleep."_

_ "No, they're not, Dawn.  Jake, Gavin, Brennan, Ciara, and Marnee were all out.  On Patrol."_

_ "Patrol?  What do you mean 'Patrol'?"_

_ "I mean Patrol, Fred.  As in killing lots of undead things with sharp pointy sticks."_

_ "Oh my god…"_

They had all basically stayed up the entire night in the living room, anxiously waiting for the missing children to return.  Dawn glanced at the clock on the wall and saw that it was nearing five in the morning.  She sighed and rose from her seat.  "I'm going upstairs to check on the twins and J.R..  I'll be back in a few minutes."

Buffy nodded numbly and looked up at her sister with sad eyes.  Dawn's heart broke.  She knelt beside her sister and pulled her into a hug.  "Everything's going to be all right, Buffy.  I know it will."

Buffy nodded again and snuggled deeper into Angel's embrace.  Dawn turned and walked up the stairs and down the hall.  She poked her head into the spare room that was always left free for Connor and smiled when she saw the slightly snoring form of Jenny nestled on the bed.  The small ray of light that sneaked through the crack in the door hit David on the opposite side of the bed.  The boy mumbled something incoherent and rolled onto his stomach.  Dawn suppressed a giggle and silently closed the door.   

Dawn repeated the process when she reached the twins room.  The boys were sleeping side by side on Doyle's top bunk while the baby was curled in a mass of blankets arranged on Liam's bottom bunk.  Dawn entered the room and checked the protective bars that ran alongside the beds that kept all three boys secure.  She smiled and kissed the tops of all three little heads and exited the room.

Dawn started to slip down the hall when she heard a muffled noise coming from her old bedroom, the one that Ciara now used for herself.  Dawn gently pushed the door open and let the bright hall light illuminate the dark veil that hung over the room.  In the queen bed that stood against the far wall, the sleeping forms of Ciara and Marnee were huddled deep under the covers.  Dawn quietly crept inside and was surprised to find that both girls were already in a deep sleep, indicating that they had been safely within the walls of the Angel residence for some time.  Dawn slowly backed away and had to bite her lip from crying out when she stepped on something sharp.  She looked down and saw, strewn amid the teddy bears and dolls that usually rested upon the bed, were a number of sharp wooden stakes and a large knife.  

Dawn left her niece's bedroom and quickly raced down the hall to Buffy's old room, the one that had been renovated for Brennan, to find the boy sprawled across the bed with Gavin curled on top of the remaining sliver of mattress, snoring loudly.  Dawn closed her eyes as she pulled the door closed, sighing in overwhelming relief.

Dawn took a moment to catch her breath, then dashed down the hall and practically fell down the stairs.  Wesley hurried to help the younger woman to her feet.  "Dawn, really!  Are you all right?"

Dawn smiled broadly at the man and fought the urge to just kiss him for joy.  "I'm splendid!"  Dawn jumped out of his grasp and leaned breathlessly against the side of the archway.  "The kids…they're here.  Brennan, Gavin, Marnee, and Ciara are all asleep upstairs!"  

Everyone looked up at Dawn as if she were dressed as a mime.  Buffy glanced around at her friends for a moment, then jumped off of Angel's lap and sprinted up the stairs.  Angel immediately followed, trailed by Oz, Willow, Cordelia, Xander, Gunn, Anya, Dawn, Wesley, and finally Fred.  They arrived at the top of the stairs to find Buffy standing in front of Ciara's open door.  Angel took a moment to glance inside before heading down the hallway to the boy's room.  Anya, Xander, Gunn, Cordelia, and Wesley went with Angel to check on the boys while Buffy, Oz, Willow, Dawn, and Fred stared at the girls.  After a few minutes, Willow burst into tears of relief and had to go back downstairs from fear of waking her sleeping daughter.  A few minutes later, the groups switched, taking the time to examine the other pair of dreaming teens.  The parents watched in sorrow as their innocent babes slept, knowing what they would face the next night.

The group watched the children for a long time before they were finally able to wrench themselves away from the scene.  Angel sighed as they all tramped back down to the living room.  "I don't know about you but I don't think I'm going to be able to sleep tonight, or possibly ever again.  Anyone for eggs and bacon?"

Xander clapped the ex-vampire on the back.  "Oh, but there's always room for bacon." 

Oz frowned.  "I think that's Jell-O."

Xander wrinkled his nose in thought.  "Uh…it's what's for dinner?" 

 "That's beef, honey," Anya replied as she patted her husband on the shoulder.

Xander snapped his fingers.  "I know this!  Behold the power of…"

 "Cheese," Dawn, Willow, Wesley, and Cordelia finished together as they flopped back into their seats, exhausted.

Angel was surprised to find himself smiling as he made his way to the kitchen and started making breakfast.  Angel lost himself as he cooked, pushing away the doubts and worries that had been plaguing his mind all night.  

Fred entered the kitchen a little while later, trying her best to be cheerful.  "Heya, Angel!  Breakfast almost ready?  The menfolk are startin' to complain and we were wonderin' what was takin' such a long…time."

Fred's mouth hung open as she looked at the stove and counters.  Angel stared along with her.  It appeared that while Angel was in his trance, he had made enough eggs, pancakes, sausage, bacon, toast, coffee, tea, and juice for a small army.

Fred looked up at the man she would always see as her savior and frowned.  "Angel, you know we're all here for you.  Gunn, Wes, Cordy, and I have already discussed it and we aren't goin' to go back to LA until we've all figured this out.  We're here for you guys."

Angel nodded.  "I know, Fred.  It's just…we worked so hard to prevent this.  Imagine how you would feel if it was Charlie or Ricky."

"Charlie spends most of his free time with Lexie and Joyce," Fred pointed out.  "As far as we know, he could be involved.  But that's not the point.  We care for all y'all.  And we love those kids.  We want them safe just as much as you do.  Now…why don't me and Buffy and Cordy set up the dinin' room like a lil buffet?"

Angel found himself grinning at the spunky woman.  "Thanks, Fred."

She rolled her eyes.  "Well, what are friends for?"

Fred practically skipped from the kitchen, only to return moments later with Buffy and Cordelia in tow.  They set to work on fixing all the food up like a buffet on the dining room table.  It took the three accomplished women only minutes, and soon Xander, Gunn, and Wesley were hungrily fixing their own plates.  Angel leaned against the stair banister in the hall and watched with a small smile as Xander pawed at the pancakes.

"Daddy!"  Angel whirled around at the cry, just in time to catch Liam as he leaped into his arms.  The boy giggled and hugged Angel tightly.  "Fly me!"

Angel shifted the boy until he was holding him comfortably in his arms, just as Doyle tumbled down the stairs and between his legs.  Doyle ran into the dining room and looked up at the table.  "Food!"

Anya bent down and looked Doyle in the eye.  "Good morning, Doyle!  What do you want for breakfast?"

Doyle shook his head.  "Aunt An'a, the baby is awake and crying.  You should go help him."

Gunn bent down and flipped the boy up into the air and onto his shoulders.  "Hey, little man, hold tight!"  He looked at Anya.  "Go ahead and get your tot.  I got this one."

Anya nodded and hurried for the stairs.  As she began to climb upwards, the drowsy and stumbling forms of Jenny and David started to push their way down the stairs.  Anya paused and flattened herself against the wall to allow them to pass.  Jenny looked up at her mother through squinting eyes and yawned, "Hey, Mom."

Anya looked at her for a moment then grabbed her daughter and pulled the girl into her arms.  Jenny's eyes went wide as her mother squeezed her tightly, kissing the top of her head.  David stopped and gawked at the display as Jenny struggled to push her mother off.  After a few moments, Anya released her daughter and started back up the stairs.  Jenny stared at the retreating form of her mother as she and David waddled into the kitchen.  "Okay.  Mom's gone crazy.  Wow, breakfast."

Jenny made it three steps to the table before being snatched into her father's own vise-like embrace.  She froze, standing stick straight as Xander held onto her.  

David raised his eyebrows at his uncle, turning to his mother.  "Um, Mom?  Why is--"

David was cut off as Willow launched herself at him.  She held her youngest close for a few moments, enjoying the feeling of knowing that he was safe.

"Mom, ah, is everything all right?" David asked as Willow released him.  

Willow smiled and tousled her youngest child's hair.  "Nothing to worry about, David."

"Where were you guys last night?" Jenny asked as she took several retreating steps from Xander.  Jenny looked at the doorway as her mother and baby brother appeared.  "And why didn't we go home?"

"We had business," Oz explained to the kids.  "And we were late getting back."

Angel looked at the small boy grinning happily in his arms.  His thoughts immediately turned towards the memories of Brennan and Ciara.  He pictured them giggling excitedly as they skipped beside him and Buffy, grasping their hands as the foursome made their way through the maze of Walt Disney World.  "My little babies."

"All righty, then," Dawn drawled as she cast Angel a worried look.  She walked over to her brother-in-law , smiling brightly for the sake of the little one in his arms.  "Hey, Liam!  Why don't we get you some food and let your Mommy and Dad talk some things over?"

"Great idea!"  Fred exclaimed with a grin.  She wrapped her arm around Jenny and began to guide the girl away from her father.  "Why don't you get a plate of food then come on in the living room.  If you want, you two can skip first period.  I'll write you a note."

"Gwah-kaw!"  Most of the group glanced up as Anya and a very moody J.R. walked into the room.  No sooner had Anya forced a smile at her friends that Cordelia was at her side.

"Here, Anya, let me take him.  You deserve a few moments of peace."  Cordelia smiled gently at Anya as she lifted the baby into her arms.  Anya gave the former cheerleader a small nod.

Fred, Gunn, Cordelia, Wesley, and Dawn got the younger kids started on the food as Angel took his own plate into the kitchen.  Buffy, Willow, Xander, Oz and Anya followed.  They sat at the kitchen table in silence, not really eating.

Buffy sighed as she picked at her eggs.  "I don't know what to do."

"I'm not sure there's anything we can do," Willow mumbled unhappily.  "You heard Gavin.  They've been chosen.  This is their duty now."

Oz entwined his hand with Willow's.  "It's okay, Will.  We'll figure something out."

"I think Willow's right.  They're the chosen defenders of the Hellmouth."  Angel rose from his seat and started cleaning the mess in the kitchen to distract himself.  He grunted as he dumped the remaining pans into the sink.

Buffy grimaced and slammed her hand against the table.  "I can't accept that.  I won't.  We've all been there.  We know what this road will bring them."

Willow nodded.  "Pain."

"Misery," Xander muttered.

"Heartache," Anya added.

"Death," Angel whispered as he reclaimed his seat beside Buffy.

Oz looked up at Angel and took a moment to study the former vampire.  He shook his head.  "You need to get out more." 

"How could this happen?" Willow asked, looking like a helpless child.  "We were so careful.  We called upon so many people to make sure that the kids couldn't be linked with the Slayer Buffy Summers."

"We weren't careful enough," Oz pointed out. 

"I just never thought that the Council would stoop this low," Angel admitted.  "It's not like we made a conscious effort to hide the kids from the natural world.  Just the supernatural."

"Spike," Xander spat.  "It had to have been him.  He sold what he knew."

"Xander, think," Buffy commanded her friend.  "Spike left to protect the kids.  I don't think it could have possibly been him."

They remained silent for a moment before Anya looked up.  "What do we tell them?"

"I'd suggest the truth, but no one hardly ever takes my advice."  

They all looked up as the four teens walked into the room, each making a point to not look at the adults seated at the table.  They were all dressed and ready for school.  Ciara, who had been the one to speak, went straight for the fruit bowl and grabbed two apples.  She turned and tossed one to Marnee.  Brennan grabbed his book bag from the kitchen counter and they all turned to go.

"Wait.  Please, wait."  Anya rose from her seat to go after them.  Without hesitation Xander, Buffy, Willow, Oz and Angel followed. 

The group gathered in the living room watched as the kids filed out, laughing and chatting with each other, ignoring their parents as they desperately hurried after them.  David almost dropped his spoon as he watched his parents and aunts and uncles chase his sister and cousins.  "What's going on?"

"Nothing," Fred answered quickly as Cordelia, Gunn, and Dawn ran after the group.

Jenny rose to follow.  "Doesn't look like nothing."

Wesley grabbed the girl and pulled her back down to her seat.  "Jennifer, stay!"

Outside the house, Buffy became desperate.  "Brennan!  Ciara!  Please!  I'm your mother."

The kids stopped chattering and walking.  They turned halfway down the walk with cold neutral looks on their faces.  Buffy, Xander, Angel, Oz, Anya, and Willow froze several paces back near the front steps.  Cordelia, Gunn, and Dawn watched from the porch as parent and child confronted one another.

"We need to talk," Xander stated.

Gavin rolled his eyes.  "Sure, Dad.  'Cause talking has worked so well till now.  You being such a great pal."

Xander closed his mouth and looked away.  

Willow took a deep breath.  "Why don't we all go to the beach or something and just have a nice family day.  We can work everything out and be together.  Plus, no school.  Yay!"

"Yeah, Mom.  Then we can all go skipping through the daisies sprinkling fairy dust everywhere singing about the wonders of life and love."  Marnee sighed.

Ciara smirked.  "Listen, maybe you could all give us your best effort at reconciling with us together, that way we could shoot them all down at once.  Right now, we're pretty much late for our meeting with Bruce."

Nobody said anything.  Brennan raised his eyebrows.  "No, then?  Well, shoot, I was really looking forward to that.  Now, if you're done making a public scene."

With that, they all turned and walked away.

As soon as they were out of sight, Buffy turned to face her friends.  "Okay, that's it.  Get in the car."

Angel, Willow, Xander, Oz, and Anya nodded and all headed to the mini-van that sat in the driveway.  Buffy ran into the house.

"Mommy, what's wrong with Ciara and Brennan?" Doyle asked as Buffy stomped into the room.

Buffy ignored her son as she grabbed Wesley's arm.  She turned to Fred.  "If you don't mind, watch the twins and make sure the other two get off to school okay."

Fred barely had time to nod before Buffy was through the door again.  She dragged Wesley across the lawn and threw him into the front passenger seat as Buffy herself climbed behind the wheel.

Buffy started the car and pulled out of the driveway.  "First things first.  We're going to pay a visit to Mr. Howard."


	10. Chapter Eight

Bruce was on his stepladder shelving the books he had used to research the Gummie when he heard the door chime go off.  There was only one group of people that would be in The Quill and Parchment at this hour.  He didn't turn to face them.  "You're late."

"We know," all four of them chorused in a singsong voice.

Bruce suppressed a smile.  "Anything new to tell me?"

"Nope," came the reply.

Bruce shook his head as his small smile broke through.  "Come back after school."

"Okay."  The shop door opened and closed once again as they left.

Bruce paused for a moment to think fondly of his special charges for several minutes.  That was until he heard the door open again.  As before he didn't look behind him.  "Your parents will kill you lot if you're tardy for classes again."

"I don't think that will be a problem."

Bruce half-fell half-jumped off the ladder.  He turned and smiled.  "Mrs. Angel.  Oh, and…everyone.  How lovely to see you all again."

Buffy glared at the man as Wesley stepped forward beside her.  "Hello, Bruce."

Bruce's eyes went wide.  "Wesley?  Wesley Wyndam-Pryce? Good lord, I haven't seen you in ages." 

Bruce rushed toward his old friend with his hand outstretched.  It was not lost on him when Wesley did not reach out to take it.  Instead, Bruce realized what it meant that he was here with the parents' of his charges.  "Would you all please take a seat?" 

No one moved.  Wesley motioned at the parents behind him.  "Bruce how could you?"

Bruce raised his hand and gestured at Wesley.  "Wesley, you of all people should know that I have no say over who is and is not chosen.  I am simply a guide."

Wesley angrily grabbed the man's arm.  "We are not talking about Slayers, Bruce.  The Council used these children to their own advantage.  Don't you think this family has suffered enough?"

Bruce pulled his arm out of Wesley's grasp.  "Nature selected these children.  Not the Council.  The abilities that have been granted to them are beyond definition.  I understand that it is hard for the families of all those who are chosen, but I see no difference here."

Wesley backed away a step, looking at his old friend in shock.  "You really don't know, do you?  I see that the Council is becoming better and better at covering it's tracks.  Bruce, might I introduce Mrs. Angel.  Mrs. Buffy Anne Summers Angel."

"Summers?"  Bruce knew the name all too well.  He closed his eyes and shook his head as realization washed over him.  "Oh, dear god."

**~~~**

Jake met Brennan, Marnee, Ciara, and Gavin at Sunnydale High School after they were released from their last class of the day.  He drove them all down to the shop in his old beat-up van that he had inherited from his father.  "Okay, Marn, what is the difference between a thousand dusted vampires and a thousand dollars?"

Marnee screwed up her face, partly in thought, partly in disgust.  "I dunno.  What?"

Jake smiled.  "I don't have a thousand dollars in my closet."

Brennan and Gavin snorted loudly as Marnee raised her hand to her face to mask her revulsion.  Ciara rolled her eyes, trying to choke down a giggle, as she pushed the shop door open.  "Bruce!  You won't believe what Jake just…" 

Ciara froze as she walked into the shop to find Bruce, her parents, the others' parents, and Uncle Wesley all seated around the table.  She felt the others stop in their tracks behind her.  She looked to her Watcher.  "Bruce?"

"Ah, children.  Come in."  Bruce looked up to them unhappily.  When none of them moved, Bruce indicated five empty chairs scattered throughout the large circle.  "Sit, please."

The teens reluctantly obeyed.  They all tried to sit as far away as they could from their respective parents.  Once they were settled, the adults rose from their seats and rearranged their order to sit near their own children.

Bruce gazed at the teens as they slumped miserably in their seats.  He took a deep breath to calm himself, then looked away.  "Now all five of you will sit and listen to your parents.  They are your parents and they have the right to be heard."

Wesley looked pleadingly at the children he'd known since they were born.  "Give them a chance.  Just hear them out before deciding whether or not to disown them."

With that, Bruce and Wesley collected their things and rose from their seats.  Bruce led Wesley toward the rear of the shop and through the door that led to the small private study.  Everyone left at the table sat in tense silence for the next several minutes.

After a while, Brennan sighed.  "If you're going to talk, then talk."

Buffy reached out and gently stroked her son's hair.  "You have to understand that we love you all very much.  Everything that we've done, we've done it for you.  You kids are the most important things in the world to us."

Ciara turned her head to look at her mother.  "You lied to us."

"Well, you did lie to us, too," Angel pointed out.

"We lied to you to protect you," Jake muttered.  "We thought we were keeping our _human_ parents in their perfect _human_ world."

"And instead, our not-so-human parents lied to us about our own humanity, or lack thereof," Gavin said loudly, indicating the entire group.

Willow looked at the boy dubiously.  "And it never occurred to you to tell any of us about the 'lack-thereof'?  Even if you thought it was an evolutionary leap, one would at least think you would tell your parents.  Some of that 'evolution' might have been in us."

Marnee looked away from the group with tears in her eyes.  "You should have told us."

Buffy sighed.  "I understand that you feel betrayed but…"

"You understand?" Brennan laughed hoarsely.  "I don't see how you could possibly understand!"

"Well, I don't," Anya said unhappily.  "Why are you all so hateful?  You keep saying you lied to us to keep us safe?  Well, we lied to you to keep you safe.  I don't see a difference.  You haven't even given us the chance to explain."

"The difference is that you let us flounder," Jake muttered and shifted uncomfortably.  "Plus, we didn't really lie to you.  We let you believe what you chose to believe.  With you…it was this whole deception thing." 

"Trust me, it was for your own good," Angel sighed.

"Fine, for our own good, whatever."  Gavin looked up from his seat.  "Tell us the truth now.  Who are you?"

Buffy nodded.  "I was born and raised in L.A. and later called as the Slayer there.  My maiden name was Buffy Summers.  Not long after I was called, my parents divorced and I was expelled from school, the latter as a result of slaying.  My mom and I moved here."

The teenagers all stared at Buffy as they digested the information.  "You were the Sunnydale Slayer?" Marnee gaped at Buffy, her tears forgotten.  "You're, like, the best Slayer in all of history.  And you're you!  My Aunt Buffy you!"

Buffy blushed a deep shade of red.  "Well, um, thanks…I think."

Xander smiled.  "Yep.  The Buffster was a force to be reckoned with back in her day."

"Couldn't have done it without my Slayerettes," Buffy laughed back.

"So you were really the Slayer?" Ciara asked, a bit more relaxed than she had been just moments earlier.  "That explains Brennan and me…sort of.  But if you were the Sunnydale Slayer…were the rest of you the big gang of followers or whatever?"

"Okay, to that a big huh?" Xander replied, perplexed.

"Part of the whole legend of the Sunnydale Slayer was that she had this major support system of, like, soldiers and witches and whatnot," Jake explained.  

"Really?" Anya asked, excited.  "Legend, you say?"

"Uh, yeah," Marnee replied.  "Some big major witch lady, some geeky wannabe with no powers that kinda followed them around, a were--"

"Hey!"  Xander shouted, nearly shrilly.  "I was not some geeky wannabe!"

"That answers a lot of questions," Gavin muttered.  "So who is what?"

"Well, I guess it's no secret that I'm a witch," Willow chuckled nervously.  "The way everything went was that after Buffy moved here she, Xander, and I became really close.  She ended up saving our lives more times than I can count.  Xander and I wanted to help.  At first we only did research but over time we did more.  Patrolling and fighting.  And I began to study witchcraft."

"I stayed human," Xander stressed from his seat.  "Just plain human."

"I joined the group my first senior year," Oz continued quietly.  "And I'm a werewolf."

"A werewolf?" Jake asked, startled.

"Yeah, but don't worry.  It shouldn't affect you, except make you more hyperaware, maybe more sensitive and flexible.  Which you already are."  Oz smiled at his children affectionately.

"What about you guys?" Gavin looked at his parents, worried.  "What makes me different?"

Xander shifted uncomfortably.  "I'm still the average human guy.  Don't blame me.  Blame your mother." 

Anya slapped her husband.  "Hey!"

 "What?" Xander asked.  "Not my fault you were a demon!"

Gavin blanched.  "Demon?"

Anya nodded.  "Ex-demon.  I was a vengeance demon for around eleven hundred years.  But I'm mortal now.  No worries."

"Right," Gavin said disheartened.

"Any other non-humans in our little 'family'?" Jake asked, a bit sarcastic but mostly curious.

They all shifted uncomfortably and glanced at Angel.  Angel groaned.  "Well, this is going to come as a shock, but I was…"

"A vampire?" Ciara grinned slyly.

Angel raised his eyebrows.  "You know?"

Brennan shrugged.  "That vampire last night, William the Bloody, he called you Angelus.  Bruce is cool most of the time, but he's a real tyrant about us learning our supernatural history."

Angel looked away.  "You don't mind?"

"Actually…no," Ciara smiled at her father reassuringly.  "I think that once the initial shock and anger wear off, none of us will really care what you all are.  It would kind of be the pot calling the kettle 'not human.'  It's the fact that you lied and hid it from us.  But the Angelus thing?  The only thing we could figure out from last night.  And that was a relief."

Buffy scowled in confusion.  "Why?"

"Well," Brennan began hesitantly.  "When we covered vampiric orders, we of course did the Brethren of Aurelius.  Eventually we covered Angelus, which Bruce preached on forever.  We don't really know much, and what we do know is really vague, but we do know that there was a…curse I think was the term.  And something about redemption fighting and a reward.  Shoeshine?"

"Shanshu," Angel corrected.

Brennan shrugged.  "Whatever.  And now, obviously still human.  If the Powers saw fit to proclaim you redeemed and worthy of humanity, who are we to question it?"

Angel gazed into the smiling faces of his children.  Ever so slowly, a smile began to work its way onto the ex-vampire's face until he was almost glowing.  

Xander rolled his eyes.  "Okay, so you know the scoop on Ex-Dead-Boy.  I'm still not getting how the whole 'my-father-was-once-known-as-the-Scourge-of-Europe' is a relief."

Marnee bit her lip as she raised her hand, blushing bright red in embarrassment.  "That would be because of me."

"What about you?" Oz asked his only daughter.

Jake grinned widely.  "Marnee about drove us all nuts last night.  She went on this big spill about how all of our parents were probably some horrible evil type of demon and that we would end up having to kill you all."

"You thought we were evil?" Willow asked Marnee, eyes wide in amazement.

Brennan resisted the urge to smile.  "She even made out this elaborate plan to trap you all and force you to sign over guardianship of her, Ciara, Jenny, David, Ricky, Doyle, Liam, and J.R. to Lexie, Joyce, Gavin, Charlie, and me!"

"_You thought we were evil_!"  Willow shrieked.

Marnee glared at the snickering boys.  "Oh, you're so cool about it now.  _'Marnee, what should we do?'  'What about the babies?'  'Can I kill Xander and Anya?  I just don't think I can kill my own parents!'_"

Anya looked up sharply.  "What?!  Who wanted to kill us?"

Gavin chuckled in amusement and shook his head.  He turned his attention back to the adults and raised his eyebrows.  "So…others?"

"Well, let's see."  Xander rapped his fingers on the table.  "Your Uncle Wesley was a Watcher.  Your Aunt Cordelia is a seer and, as a result, part demon."

Jake furrowed his brow.  "A what?"

"A seer," Angel explained.  "She used to receive visions of people in need of help, but she hasn't had a vision since right before Brennan was born."

"Gunn was a demon hunter," Buffy continued thoughtfully.  "Fred was a slave in a demon hell dimension for five years.  Connor is the son of your father as an ensouled vampire and an evil vampiress and was raised in a hell dimension by your father's worst enemy.  And…oh!  Your Aunt Dawn is a mystical ball of light."

Ciara froze and she, along with Brennan, Jake, and Marnee, stared at Buffy with wide, disbelieving eyes.  Gavin laid his head down against the table.  

Anya studied her son closely.  "I think he's in shock."

"I don't think 'shock' is a strong enough word," Gavin replied, his voice muffled by the table.

Marnee bit her lip and slowly nodded in mild acceptance.  "So that's it, huh?  You were defenders of the Hellmouth when you were younger?"

"In a nutshell," Anya answered.

Jake raised his hand.  "We prefer 'in a turtle shell.'"

Angel looked at the teens painfully.  "We fought the fight.  There were many times where we all thought it was becoming too much.  We had a lot of loss."

"I even died," Buffy said.

"Twice," Oz finished for her.

Gavin rose from his seat.  "Well.  This has been…enlightening."

Willow watched the children start to get to their feet with a renewed panic growing inside her.  "Where are you going?"

Marnee looked down at her mother.  "This is…a lot to take in.  We need some time to think.  Just give us that.  Please."

The adults all nodded.  They sat quietly as their children turned to go.

"And just so you all know, we're not going to stop."  Brennan ran a nervous hand through his hair.  "We know that's basically what you would want us to do.  But this is a part of who we are.  We can't change because you want us to."

Willow looked at each one of them in turn.  "We pretty much knew that would be your answer.  That's basically what we said a hundred and one times to our families, our friends, even ourselves."

Buffy sighed.  "Once you know what's out there, it's pretty hard to turn your back on it.  You want to be strong, to fight it.  And we want you to know that we support you."

The teens' heads whipped around at this.  

Marnee bit her lip almost afraid to hope.  "You're okay with this?"

"Do we have a choice?" Oz asked point blank, rising to his own feet.

Marnee shook her head as her father's arm made its way around her shoulders.  "Well, no, but we never thought you'd condone it."

"Not only do we support you, we want to help," Xander said.  "We need to help."

All five teens froze and just stared at the human man, dumbfounded.

"Help?" Gavin repeated.

"Well, we know stuff," Buffy said as she also rose to her feet.  "We can teach you.  Maybe do some extra training."

"Extra training?" Ciara squeaked.

"Not much," Angel reassured her with a smile as he grabbed his jacket from the counter.  "Just an hour or so more a day."

"An hour or so more a day," Brennan echoed.  He glanced toward where Marnee and Jake were talking with their parents.  He could see by Marnee and Jake's horrified expressions that they were also discussing something similar.  

Anya grimaced at the trio.  "What are you three?  A broken record?"

Buffy looked at her watch.  "Ah!  It's almost sunset.  You five had better get going.  We're all going to our own homes tonight, so just call if you need anything."

Brennan nodded and numbly returned his mother and father's respective hugs.  He repeated the process as all four of his aunts and uncles pulled him into their own embraces, just a they did his sister and friends.  He watched his parents exit the shop, followed by the Harris' and the Osbourne's.  The five teens just looked at each other, then started to leave just as Wesley and Bruce appeared from the back room.  

"Was that the door?" Wesley looked around to find that the six other adults were gone.  "Oh, goodness, I'd best be off.  Buffy and Angel are my ride back to the house.  See you kids later."

Wesley disappeared onto the street.  Gavin looked to Bruce for support.  "Bruce, this is a nightmare."

"What should we do?" Brennan asked the Watcher.  "I mean, they were talking and they said…"

"Yes, yes, Brennan, I heard it all," Bruce reassured his young charge.  "Now, it is almost sunset.  Why don't you five go ahead and start Patrol?  I'll talk to you about the situation tomorrow when we've all had time to let this new information settle."

At Bruce's request, the teens reluctantly left.  Needing some time to think everything over, they made a quick sweep, then went off to Restfield Cemetery.  In the back to the far right were some flat headstones in a staggard semi-circle near an old mausoleum.  The group had made the area their spot to go to when they needed time to think things through.

"You know, this could only happen to us," Jake stated as he sat down on the head stone nearest the mausoleum.

Gavin grunted from his usual perch on the marker to the far left.  "I think I'm still trying to absorb.  I'm part demon.  You two are part werewolf, part witch.  And the Wonder Twins are part Slayer, part vampire…or whatever."

"Did you hear them talking?" Ciara asked from her seat on the far right, not taking her eyes off her shoelaces.  "They want us to train an extra hour every day with them."    

"Yeah," Marnee sighed miserably beside her best friend.  "Mom is already trying to figure out what level Jake and I are on.  She wants to do spells together.  She was almost…giddy about it."  

"That they were," Brennan agreed as he scooted onto the stone between Jake and Gavin.  "It was weird.  The whole time we were talking everyone was very serious, then they go and get all pepped up about helping.  I guess I'll take the time to be suspicious later.  I didn't really make it past the fact that Mom was the Sunnydale Slayer."

"Well, at least you all are something decently respectable.  My mom was one of the most feared vengeance demons in all the world.  When she hugged me, she whispered in my ear that she has some 'excellent examples of creative vengeance' if I so choose to become a demon myself."  Gavin muttered bitterly as he poked at the hard cold ground with a long stick he had pulled off a tree.  "This level of suck could only happen to us."

"I can't bloody believe it," an English voice laughed.  All five jumped up, bringing their weapons to bare as Spike appeared from behind a mausoleum.  "You lot sound every bit as depressing as your parents  'We have super powers and get to save the world, yet poor us.'  Do you know how damned miserable it was to sit by and watch their bloody soap opera?"

Gavin wrinkled his nose in disgust as Spike sauntered over to where the group was sitting.  He sat back down, but did not relax, his instincts screaming.  "You.  What do you want?"

"What I want is to be able to maim and massacre," Spike smirked as he stood before the five teens.  He looked them over and smiled wider.  "I'm guessing what you want is to be normal.  Nobody gets what they want."

"Well, wrong on one count," Brennan grinned as he strolled towards the vampire.  "What I want is to make you a pile of dust.  And now, Dad's not here to stop me."

"Like you nancy boys could touch me if I didn't want you to," Spike chuckled as he looked the boys over.  He let his gaze wonder over to the two young women and leered at them appreciatively.  "Now you two, well, we can dance anytime you feel the need…"

In an instant Spike found himself pinned to a tree for the second time in as many nights.  This time, the three teenage boys held him down, anger and disgust written all over their faces.

"Hey…okay.  Bloody hell, no one can take a joke these days.  Besides, why would any of you Scrappies want to dust your old nanny?"

Brennan, Gavin, and Jake released Spike and took a few steps back.  Gavin tripped over a headstone and landed on his backside on the ground, never breaking his horrified stare.  "Our old what?" 

Spike grinned.  "Don't remember me?  Come on, now, I remember you lot.  First there were the twin chits, Lexie and Joyce.  Then there was Red and the mongrel's boy.  Who I'm guessing you are.  You are Jacob, right?"

Jake shook his head, staring at Spike as he tried to call up memories from a distant past.  "You're…I remember you.  You called us the Scrappies.  Scrappy Number Three.  That's what you called me.  That and Spot…which I now get.  And you're Spike."  Jake smiled as the memories slowly returned to him.  He shifted out of his defensive stance and relaxed as he studied Spike.  He laughed and ran his tongue over his teeth.  "Lexie and Joyce called you Little Spikey, though.  You hated it.  They were always making you play with them and once…oh, god, we played that board game.  What's it called?"

Spike frowned and turned away.  "I don't know what you're going on about."

"Pretty, Pretty Princess!"  Jake snorted.  He clutched his stomach as he chuckled.  "And you won!  You put on all the pink jewelry and danced around singing, 'I'm the pretty, pretty princess.  I'm the pretty, pretty princess.'"

Spike scowled as the other four teens dissolved into laughter, feeling more relaxed in the vampire's presence.  "Yeah, well, the whole soddin' lot of you forced me.  Anyway, I looked out for you bints.  Took care of all of ya.  Alexandra, Joyce, Jacob, Brennan, Gavrilovich, Ciara, and Marina.  Was your protector when your parents played superheroes.  Present at all your births, even played doctor when Gavrilovich was born, since Anya didn't like hospitals.  Attended all the major events of your young lives until I left on business about a month after your fourth birthday, Spot."

Jake nodded sadly, as if he had already known this.  He sat back down on his headstone as he looked at the bleached blond.  "I don't remember my birthday, but I remember you being gone.  Joyce and Lex cried for 'Uncle Spike' for nearly two years."  

Gavin, Brennan, Ciara, and Marnee became silent.  Brennan and Gavin took their seats as they stared at the vampire, dumbfounded.  Marnee found her voice first.  "You, a vampire, were basically our protector until we were all at least toddlers?"

"That's right, pet," Spike said as he pulled a cigarette out of his pocket.  "You're Marina, right?  You look like your mum."

"Yeah…or no," Marnee replied.  "I go by Marnee."

Spike shrugged.  "Marnee.  Marina.  You're still the little trollop that threw up on me the first time I held her."

Marnee blushed furiously.  Spike grinned wickedly as he watched the girl half-hide behind Gavin.  "Don't be embarrassed, pet.  I could tell stories about you all till you wet your pants."  Spike turned his attention to the boy sitting beside Marnee.  "And you must be Gavrilovich.  Remind me of your pop, you do.  Deepest sympathies on that."

"Please don't call me that," Gavin pleaded.

"What?  Gavrilovich?  It's your name, you poof."  Spike finally lit his cigarette as he took a seat on a vacant headstone facing the group.  "It's a good name, too.  Gavrilovich was the name of a demon god.  Rained down mayhem and destruction for several millennia until he was banished to another dimension.  He left his son, demon by the name of D'Hoffran, to govern this dimension.  I believe it was D'Hoffran that made your mum a demon.  Only name that could possibly be better should be your middle name."

Brennan and Jake started laughing as they realized what the vampire was referring to.  "Gavin!" Brennan shouted between snorts.  "You're named after him!  Gavrilovich _Spike_ Harris!"

Gavin closed his eyes and started breathing slowly and deeply.  Marnee smacked Brennan and Jake on the arm as Ciara gave Spike a withering look.  "His name is Gavin now.  Just plain Gavin."

"Fine by me," Spike said as he looked Ciara up and down.  "You're Ciara."

"Yeah," the girl nodded.  "And…"

"You're a lot like the Slayer," Spike said as he took a draw from his cigarette.  "You look like her, sure, but there's something about you, pet, that gives off the air of your mum.  You got a lot of Peaches in you, too.  Bloody shame."

Ciara crossed her arms over her chest as she looked Spike up and down.  "And what would you know about my parents?"

"More than you, apparently," Spike smirked.  "I could tell you things about the Scoobies that would make your toes curl."

Marnee looked up at him sharply.  She hesitated for a moment, as if thinking something over, then asked softly, "What kinds of things?" 

Spike raised his eyebrows in surprise, then grinned wickedly.  "You want to know, ducks?  I can tell you.  Probably the only bastard who can.  Question is what do you have to offer in return?"

Brennan shifted his weight uncomfortably.  It bothered him enough that they were all standing here talking with a vampire that was apparently once their baby-sitter.  But Brennan couldn't help but wonder at Spike's offer.  He knew that whatever stories and answers they would finally get from their parents, they would only be the fluffy versions.  Spike was offering them an insiders view of their parents past, of their own past.  It wasn't something they would likely find anywhere else.  

"Well," Brennan started uneasily, "we have some money.  Not much but…"

"Sod your money," Spike growled.  "I don't need to be taking some little bit's weekly allowance.  No, what I need is information.  What's been going on in Sunnyhell since I left?  What's new with the Scoobies?  What exactly do you lot measure up as?  Straight up trade.  You tell me something, I tell you something."

"Well, isn't this just the perfect little predicament," Jake muttered.  None of the teens relished the thought of explaining to a vampire the intricate details of their close-knit family.

"It's up to you lot," Spike shrugged nonchalantly.  "But just to give you a sample of the product, I'll tell you a freebie."

The group nodded and relaxed as Spike sat in the middle of the small half circle.  He inhaled deeply from his cigarette while he looked down at the ground deep in thought.  The teens waited patiently while the vampire remained silent.  He suddenly looked up.  "Right, then.  I figure you want a story from before you bints were born.  I would tell you the whole Glory fiasco, but you need a bit of backstory for that.  There was the time that I tried to force Red to do this love spell for me, but then the witch and warlock would probably turn me into a toad.  And then another time, when I went to…visit the Poof in LA, but I don't think you'd enjoy that particular one.  I think that the story to tell would be the one where Peaches became soulless after he shagged the Slayer."

Brennan and Ciara whipped their heads around and looked Spike straight in the eye.  "What?!"


	11. Chapter Nine

**Disclaimer:  Refer to Author's Notes.**

Marnee climbed into her room in her family's one-story house through the window that she always left open.  Her brain had been overloaded at some point in the last thirty hours and she was in need of some serious sleep.  The redhead was so tired that she basically tumbled onto the floor of her room.

As soon as Marnee hit the floor, the overhead light flickered to life.  Marnee jumped up to her feet and shifted into a fighting stance, just to find her mother and father standing just inside the door.  

Willow smiled and pointed at the window.  "You don't have to do that anymore.  We left the back door open.  And you won't get into any trouble."

Marnee relaxed and glanced at the window sheepishly.  "Sorry.  Old habit."

"Understandable," Oz said with a nod of his head. 

"Sorry, it's so late," Marnee said, trying for a genuine smile.  She turned to close the window.  "We just got caught up.  There's a new thing in town that's kind of making the vamp numbers go wacky."

"Oh, the Gummie?" Willow asked, half-interested.

Marnee slammed the window shut a bit more forcefully than needed and turned back to face her parents slowly.  She gave them an odd look.  "You know about the Gummie?"

Willow smiled wider and gave a little shrug.  "Well, yeah.  We are demon hunters.  It's our job to know."

Marnee huffed and shook her head.  She walked around to her dresser and pulled the top drawer open.  Willow and Oz both watched in concern as she piled different pajama sets on the floor until she came to her yellow and purple Tinker Bell nighties.  She threw them on the daisy-printed comforter.

Oz cleared his throat loudly.  "Uh, Marnee…anything you want to tell us?"

Marnee started to toss the other scattered pajamas back into the open drawer.  "No.  nothing.  This is just fun."

Willow put a hand to her pounding head and sighed.  "Marnee…"

"Of course everything is fine,"  Marnee continued, ignoring the adults.  "At least it was.  I was a nice, normal girl.  I had the ideal family.  Loving parents, protective older brother, sweet little brother that looked up to me.  The best friends anyone could ask for.  A family that some people can only dream of."

Marnee smiled sadly as she shrugged.  "Okay, so occasionally strange things happened when I got upset.  So every once in awhile there was some weird, unexplainable dream.  And my perfect friends, well, they had their own peculiar moments.  So what?  I could ignore it all.  I was happy.

"Then I went to high school.  It was hard, granted, but I survived with the help of my friends.  But then, before the first day was even over, some British man turned my sensible little world upside down."

Willow bit her lip and turned to Oz, desperate.  Oz looked from his wife to his daughter.  "Marnee, we know that it wasn't fair but…"

"But what?" Marnee yelled.  "You _knew_.  You knew that we might be different, but you didn't say anything.  You lied to us.  You lied to _me_!  You condemned me…and Jake to this life where we're not guaranteed anything.  Not even tomorrow."

"Marnee, please," Willow raised a hand to her mouth to choke back the sob rising in her throat.

"Please?" Marnee raised an eyebrow.  "Please what?  Please stop?  Why should I?  I love fighting.  Being able to invoke magics and powers…this is what I was born to do.  And you were born for it, too.  But you weren't there.  There was a lie and an Englishman.  If you hadn't lied to me, there never would have been Bruce.  We wouldn't have been trapped in this lonely void for the past three years.  There would've been you and us.  And it hurts to know that instead you shoved us off onto some stranger."

Oz took a ragged breath.  "Marn…we never wanted this type of life for you.  We were just…"

Marnee bit her lip and held up her hand, calling for silence.  She closed her eyes and took a steadying breath.  "I'm sorry.  I didn't mean to lose it like that.  I'm just tired.  It's not important."

Marnee turned to the bed and started to turn down the covers.  Willow tried to speak but couldn't think of the words that she wanted to say.  When Marnee turned back to find both Willow and Oz still standing in the room, she began to rub her eyes.  "Please.  I'm begging you.  Just leave."

Oz sighed.  He turned, pulling the speechless Willow out of the room with him.  Once they were both gone, Marnee crossed the room.  Without a second thought she shut and locked the door.  

Marnee numbly changed into her pajamas and crawled under the covers of her bed.  She stared into the darkness for a long time, thinking over her outburst.  After coming to the conclusion that the whole situation was miserable, Marnee turned onto her side and cried herself to sleep.


	12. Chapter Ten

**Disclaimer:  See Author's Notes**

The tension between the five teenagers and their parents did not thin.   Even though things were not right between the parents and their children, they all fell back into their daily routines.  The major change came when Buffy, Angel, Anya, and Xander decided to abandon the plan to send Liam, Doyle, and J.R. to L.A. under the circumstances.  Instead the young children, along with Jenny and David, spent the majority of their time with Dawn, Fred, Anya, and Cordelia.  

The adults allowed their older children to go about their business without any interference.  The teens went to school as usual.  To try and ease the growing strain between them and their parents, they attended all their classes.  The meetings with Bruce were uncomfortable at best.  The Englishman acted strangely around his charges.  He was more dismissive of the teenagers than he had ever been.  He kept up his research on the Gummie and informed them of what he learned.  The training he submitted them to after school hours was hard and rigid.  Bruce barely said anything to them except for ordering them out on patrol.

The next night, they all decided to meet at Gavin's house.  His basement room was large and apartment-like.  Gavin's grandparents had tragically been killed in a car accident a few years before he was born.  He didn't know much about them, but he knew that his father had inherited their house.  Xander had made several modifications to it, then moved his family into the house.  In the beginning, it had been more than large enough for Joyce, Lexie, and Gavin to all have their own rooms.  Then Jenny had come along.  Gavin had moved from his room into the smaller room that had been Lexie's while the twins shared his bigger room, leaving Joyce's old room open for Jenny.  When Anya had discovered that she was pregnant with J.R., Gavin had moved downstairs into the basement.  His parents had all but forced him to, wanting to leave the twins' room available for when the girls came home.  Xander had renovated it, telling Gavin old stories from when he had lived in the large room.

Jake left his dorm room early that evening and set out for his family's house in his van.  It took him only minutes to get there, knowing the route from his dorm room to the house like the back of his hand.  He pulled around into the driveway of his lifelong home.  The one-story brick house called to him, his sanctuary from the storm.  He sat in the car for a moment, the vibrations from the ancient engine soothing his nerves.  His sanctuary no longer existed.  Nothing was pure.  Jake smiled to himself and turned the car off.  He had survived worse.  His storms had left him well-weathered. 

Jake walked through the front door and into a very quiet house.  He glanced around and found the family room and kitchen were strangely empty.  With a small shrug, he walked towards the rear of the house and pushed through the door and into his father's computer room.

Oz sat in front of his three top-of-the-line computers, fingers flying over the various keyboards.  His headphones were pulled down over his head, one ear left uncovered.  Jake coughed loudly, trying to draw his father's attentions to him.  It worked and Oz turned in his swiveling chair.  

Jake nodded at the older man in greeting.  "Um, hey.  I'm here for Marnee."

"Oh, yeah," Oz said, pointing down the hall towards the teenage girl's room.  "She's in her room, doing something to her hair.  She'll probably be out in a few minutes."

"Thanks." Jake began to turn down the hall, but was stopped by his father's voice.

"Oh, hey, Jake!" Oz called out.  Jake turned back to face his father.  "Your mother…she left something for you.  It's for tonight.  I think it's in your room."

Jake nodded his understanding.  "Thanks."

"And Jake?" Oz looked at his eldest seriously.  "Be careful."

Jake gave his father a small smile.  "Always am."

Jake turned and started down the hall for his room.  The last door on the left was his, the door beside David's and across from Marnee's.  It had once been covered in newspaper clippings, posters, comic strips, anything that Jake had felt speak to him.  It was now barren, purified to its original snow white, all trace of Jacob Nathaniel Osbourne removed.  Jake opened the door and stepped into his old room.  It was much like his door.  His bed was made up in an old quilt his mother had found in the basement. The desk was almost barren, a small light fixture the only thing remaining.  A few movie posters were the only traces of life in this stripped room.  Well, the posters, a drawer of clothes in the dresser, and the few magical supplies that rested on a shelf that hung over the desk.

Jake glanced at the objects.  To the casual observer, they might appear as trinkets and paperweights.  A large crystal the shape and size of a baseball was the centerpiece.  It was surrounded by some jars of sand and an incense burner.  The objects were low-grade protection items, meant to guard from unfriendly intentions.  

Jake frowned and stepped towards the small display.  Someone had disturbed them.  The intruder had taken great care with them and had tried their best to put them back the way they had been, but they were still disturbed, none-the-less.  Jake looked down from the display, reaching within himself to make sure his weak spell on the house still held.  A moment later, his deep green eyes blinked open.  The spell still held strong.  

"Jake!"  Marnee's voice called out shrilly.  "I'm ready when you are!"

Jake rolled his eyes and turned to go when something caught his eye.  He looked down at the desk to see a small box laying on top of a note.  He picked the box up and frowned at it before looking down at the scrap of paper.

_Jake,_

_I noticed your altar this morning when I came in to put some clothes away.  I can't believe I never noticed it before, but I guess I was living in a world of my own making.  It took me awhile to find these after so many years in storage, but I did.  Their power is still very strong.  I've already given Marnee hers.  Please wear them whenever you go out._

_Love you,_

Mom 

Jake let the note fall back down onto the desk as he opened the box.  Inside, on a simple chain, was a jade pendant with an intricate Celtic-like knot carved deeply into it.  Jake's eyes immediately went wide as he recognized the pendant as an extremely powerful protection talisman.  They were very rare and very expensive.

He stared at the pendant for a moment before raising it into the air.  Very slowly, he lowered the chain over his head.  He went still, every nerve at the ready to register any change or difference.

"You know, you're doing a great impersonation of a statue."

Jake jumped.  He whirled around to find David leaning lazily against the doorframe.  The younger boy smiled as he sauntered into the room.  He took a quick look around as he wondered towards the desk.  Jake watched his brother warily, knowing well what the boy was capable of.  Even at eleven, his sharp mind had learned how to pick apart his older siblings.

Jake casually slipped his mother's note off the desk and into his pocket as David gazed up at the crystal ball.  Before Jake could stop him, the boy had reached up and grabbed the powerful crystal.  Jake sighed as David started to roll the ball in his hands.

"Mom spent the entire day on the phone with Aunt Buffy," David said, his concentration firmly on the ball as he tossed it in the air.  "I'm pretty sure she was crying."

Jake froze and glanced uncomfortably at his brother.  "Oh."

"Yeah," David replied calmly.  "So…what did you all do this time?"

Jake groaned inwardly.  His brother was almost too quick.  The nineteen-year-old quickly slid into an innocent stance.  "What are you talking about?"

"Oh, come on, Jake," David said with a smile.  He tossed the ball into the air once more, catching it easily.  "I might be eleven, but I'm not stupid.  You know better.  Only one thing can get Mom and Dad so upset.  And that's you and the others.  So what did you do?  Another fight, or did you actually kill someone this time?"

Jake's innocent mask fell away as he gave the boy a threatening look.  "You shouldn't mouth off about things you don't understand."

David scoffed, rolling the crystal between his hands.  "Only reason I don't understand is because none of you will ever tell me what's going on."

"You don't need to know," Jake replied immediately.  "You're too young."

"I'm almost twelve!" David huffed incredulously, his calm demeanor shrinking back as his eleven-year-old emotions came forth.  "I catch on a bit on my own.  Me and Jenny think you guys are in a gang."

Jake laughed bitterly.  "Yeah, a gang.  The Warriors."

"Tell me what's going on," David said pleadingly.  His calm demeanor returned as he tossed the ball into the air.  "I'm gonna find out sooner or later."

Jake looked at the boy.  He didn't want to be his parents.  He didn't want to lie to David.  The boy deserved to know the truth, just like he had deserved to know the truth.  But it was not his truth to give.  At least not until David started high school.  "Mom and Dad didn't say anything?"

David shook his head.  "Nope."

Jake turned away.  "Then neither will I."

David sighed and put the crystal down on the desk.  He turned towards his brother, eyes blazing with barely contained anger.  "I _will_ find out what you guys are hiding.  I'm a part of this family, too!"

With that he stormed out of the room, slamming the door.  On the desk, the crystal shook, then shattered into thousands of pieces.  Jake watched the small bits of crystal scatter over the room.  Once they had settled, he waved his hand, muttering in Latin under his breath.  A moment later, the crystal ball was back on his desk.  

Jake picked the ball up then glanced toward the door.  "More than you think, Davey."

**~~~**

Jake and Marnee knocked on the front door.  It swung open to reveal Buffy and Anya.  "Hey, kids.  Gavin, Ciara, and Brennan are already in the kitchen."

Marnee tried to smile, but didn't quite pull it off.  She shot a worried look at Jake as the two women led them through the halls to the large kitchen in the rear of the house.  Her brother just shrugged and followed Anya and Buffy.  The group walked into the kitchen where Xander was picking over the food that Angel was still fussing over.  Around the table in the dining nook, the rest of the teens were sitting.  They all were staring silently of the plates of teriyaki chicken, rice, and carrots.  

Brennan, Gavin, and Ciara looked up as Jake and Marnee took seats beside them.  The two redheads watched, dumbfounded, as a whistling Angel put their own plates of food in front of them.  He smiled at the two then went back over to the stove.

Jake raised his eyebrows as he gazed at the plate.  He looked up at his friends.  "What's going on?"

Gavin looked back at Jake unhappily.  "Well, first we get good nutritious food to load up on, then we get to go on Patrol.  Together.  As one big happy family."

Marnee choked on the small bite of chicken she had just taken.  "What?!"

"Don't worry," Buffy smiled at the girl from where she was starting to wash the dishes.  "We'll call your parents so they can go too."

Marnee's eyes went wide.  "No…no need.  We generally…well, you see the thing is…we're the Warriors and patrol is…well, Bruce…"

"Bruce wanted us to check on something," Jake smoothly interrupted his babbling sister.  He looked up at the adults and smiled.  "We would tell you about it, but it's something that we have to do.  A sort of contact that will only talk to us."

Buffy opened her mouth to argue but Brennan held up a hand to cut her off.  The boy effortlessly picked up on Jake's well-thought lie.  "Mom, we would like to Patrol with you but…this is a very delicate situation.  Our contact could become…hostile if it feels threatened."

Xander sighed.  "Well, we wouldn't want to cause that.  Why didn't you say something?  Let us get all worked up, then…nothing."

"Well, you were so excited," Gavin gulped, "we didn't know how to break it to you."

Angel nodded.  He started to pick up the dirty dishes that were strewn about the table and gestured to the door.  "It's after sunset.  You better get started."

The teenagers gladly dropped their forks and rose from the table.  They waved goodbye to their parents and strode out the door.  Once they were out of their parents' watchful eyes, they made a few quick rounds then went to Restfield Cemetery.  They arrived in their spot to find it empty.  

Gavin sighed and waved his right hand at the deserted graveyard.  "So, where is he?"

Brennan shrugged unhappily.  "Dunno.  Maybe we'll get lucky and not have to go through with this."

"You wish, mini-Poof."  Spike stepped out from behind the mausoleum.  He smiled at the teens as they reluctantly took their seats.  "So, are you prepared to tell me what I want to know?"

"Depends," Ciara smirked as she looked him over.  "Are you prepared to dish out the knowledge?  Hate to tell you this, but it'll be hard to top last night's tale."

Spike grinned at the blonde devilishly.  "Not a problem.  If I could say anything about the Scoobies, it was that their lives were interesting."

"So, who goes first tonight?" Marnee asked tentatively.

Spike smiled at the girl.  "Well, you tell me a few things about your parents tonight.  I want to know basic stuff.  What do they do?  What's the family life been like the past couple of years?  Are there any more Scrappies running around these days?  I want to know anything and everything you can think of.  From the old family tales to what the big yam was yesterday."

"Okay."  Gavin nodded slowly.  "What do we get in return?

"Oh, well tonight you'll hear the thrilling tale of where the Little Bit came from," Spike clucked as he made himself comfortable on a large vacant headstone a few steps from where the teens sat.  "Tonight you'll learn exactly what Auntie Dawn is and what the Slayer gave up to keep little sister safe.  And, if I like what I hear, I might throw in the bonus feature of the Scoobies' first year in college.  Not that much to tell about, but were a few interesting incidents including a tiny will-be-done spell by Red after the dog left her.  But first I want to hear from you."

"Alright, then," Marnee started.  She shifted in her seat and glanced at her friends.  "I'm Marina Arlyss Osbourne, daughter of Daniel and Willow Osbourne.  Jake is my older brother.  We have one younger brother, David…" 


	13. Chapter Eleven

**Disclaimer:  Yes, of course I own Buffy.  See, I'm Joss Whedon secretly masquerading as a dyslexic butterfly.  Now that you're done with that major load of bull, check the Author's Notes.**

The next day Gavin awoke in his bed.  He lay motionless on the soft mattress unwilling to get up.  That day, Friday, December 6, 2024, was his eighteenth birthday.  

Gavin had dreamt of this day for months.  The day that he was no longer a boy, but a real man.  Now it was a tainted day, spoiled by all that had occurred the previous three.  As if it wasn't bad enough learning about the deceitfulness of the adults and the truth about what he and his family were, the teenagers had gone out seeking trouble.  They should have known better than to seek out the truth of their parents' past.  They had learned long ago that ignorance is bliss.  

Sunnydale had been strangely quiet the previous night, almost too quiet since the Gummie was in town.  But the teens had used the quiet to their advantage.  They had stayed out the entire night listening as Spike wove his tales.  In addition to their parents first year of college and the Glory situation, Spike had recounted Buffy's death and subsequent resurrection.  He also explained the following year.  Spike went into great detail of his relationship with Buffy, much to the disgust of Ciara and Brennan.  He told them of the singing, dancing demon that had cast a sort of musical spell over Sunnydale, the spell Willow cast that made them all lose their memories, and Xander and Anya's first pathetic attempt at a wedding.  Just when the teens had thought they had heard it all, they learned of Willow's descent into darkness.  Even though they had tried to be discreet, Gavin knew that Spike also privately told Ciara and Brennan a few things about Angelus' past.  The entire group had also heard, in great length, the many depraved accomplishments of Spike, several sordid stories of Drusilla, and the burden of Spike's chip. 

The new knowledge pounded in Gavin's brain.  It was unreal.  The adults had gone through just as much as they had.  Almost more.  The skeletons in the closets were beginning to become too much for Gavin.  Tonight was his big birthday blast.  Hoards of people would be at his house, expecting a lively birthday boy.  Gavin knew he could play the role, that would be the easy part.  At nine, most of the partygoers would leave for home, the celebration cut short in hopes that the defenseless merrymakers would make it to those homes alive.  The remaining group would be his extended family.  Gavin would have to face the people he had always looked up to, knowing what he now knew.  That would be the hard part.

Gavin braced himself mentally for what the day would bring.  He rose from the gentle sanctuary of his bed.  He glanced at the digital clock hanging on the wall.  He was up an hour earlier than he usually forced himself from slumber.  He sighed, knowing that sleep would not come now that he was completely coherent.  Accepting the fact that he was just going to get an early start on the dreaded day, he pulled on his clothing and went through his normal routine in the bathroom.  Twenty minutes later he was ready.  

Gavin was about to fall back on his bed to think recent events over more thoroughly when his stomach growled long and low.  Acknowledging the demanding hunger that was creeping its way through his stomach, he quietly slinked up the stairs that led from the basement apartment to the kitchen.  He was about to sneak into the kitchen when he heard his parents muffled voices.  He immediately froze, standing silently just outside the kitchen door.

"I don't understand why we can't just say no more," Anya's voice rang shrilly.  "They don't need to be out there fighting monsters.  They can't take care of themselves."

"We don't know that they can't," Xander replied calmly.  "We all saw them in action.  I was in a little shock, granted, but I do seem to recall five vampires easily becoming dust.  Their fighting techniques are just a little bit different than ours."

"Different means bad," Anya snapped at her husband.  "Besides, Gavin is just a baby.  He can't do this.  He's going to get hurt.  Or worse…"

"Anya," Xander interrupted, trying to remain calm.  "Gavin is eighteen years old.  He's not a baby.  Besides, we will find out if they can defend themselves soon enough.  We found a space last night.  Whenever Buffy and Angel are ready, we'll start."

"_Think_, Xander!" Anya nearly screeched.  "Gavin has never been a fighter.  All he inherited from me was my ability to feel and read energies.  Take away Ciara, Brennan, Marnee, and Jake and all that's left is a demon radar.  He's weak, Xander.  Gavin can't do this!"

Xander sighed loudly.  "Maybe he can't.  I don't know.  I do know that we have to find a way out of this.  Come on, let's go get a shower.  Take your mind off this."

Gavin didn't even feel disgusted when his mother squealed as she and Xander practically dashed out of the kitchen and up the stairs.  He stared at the door that had separated him from the arguing couple.  After a moment, he blinked then scooted away back down the stairs.  He sat down on the bed, scarcely believing what he had heard.

Gavin grabbed his book bag, then ran to the slightly boarded up door.  He kept running until he was three blocks from the house.  He aimlessly wandered the early morning streets of Sunnydale until it came time to head for the school.  The entire time his mother's words resounded in his head over and over again.  _"Gavin can't do this."_

And Even More Author's Notes 

****

Thanks to everyone for their reviews.  This is my first fic, so please be nice.  Special shout-out to gidgetgirl for the anonymous review tip (now I'll pretend that I knew about that, but just didn't want anonymous reviews).  By my calculations, Dawn should be around thirty-seven (well, depending on whether you count the fourteen "pretend" years or not).  Yes, she has had a life between now and then.  But that probably won't come out till the sequel.  This is my test run.  If I get good responses (and I have so far, so it's a 95% chance I'll be posting it), I have a darker and much more fun sequel series that I have almost completed the first draft of.

Okay, on to a general warning (and a bit of a rant, but it'll help in the long run).  I know I'll get severe backlash for one of the upcoming chapters.  I love the Scoobies just as much as you all, but please, keep in mind, they're all over forty (the exception being Dawn) and have been out of regular training for some years now.  Damn, doesn't that just spoil a big plot twist for ya?  And, yeah, the kids were being a bit bratty to begin with, especially that vulgar scene they made out on the front lawn of Buffy and Angel's, and they're totally not justified.  But the Scoobs weren't justified in keeping their secrets for so long, either.  _**Ducks large objects being thrown her way.**_  I can understand them not wanting the life 'o death for their kids, but every person deserves to know who they are.  And I don't mean them going to Spike and just asking for trouble by poking their noses where they didn't belong.  I mean that the kids should have been told long ago what they were and what they were capable of.  I've been in a. . .well, not a similar situation, 'cause, hey, vampires and demons.  Basically, me and a few of my family members didn't find out who we were until I was fourteen (my sister was ten, my cousins 18, 23, and 6).  It sucked.  To this day, I'm angry.  And, like the kids of this story, we found out by ourselves.  No one told us (until we made them, that is).  So keep that in mind while reading.  (End warning and rant)

Oh, and there will be some fun Angelus-y moments in the future.  Not in this, but the sequel.  But not in the way you'd imagine…(cue trumpets and drums)

Sorry for the short update, but there is a fun, long chapter on the way next.  Crescendo (my beta…all spelling and grammar mistakes to be blamed on her) tells me it's evil, that it destroyed her view on life.  I told her to suck it up.

That was nice and long-winded of me.  Next large chapter will be up no later than tomorrow.

}ϊ{ Flutterby


	14. Chapter Twelve

**Disclaimer:  See Author's Notes**

"What do you think they meant?"  Brennan asked Gavin as he pounded on the controller button with his right thumb.

Gavin shrugged as he twisted his controller's joystick to dodge the attack.  "I dunno.  Like I said, all I heard was that they found a space last night and as soon as Uncle Angel and Aunt Buffy are ready, they will know soon enough if we can defend ourselves."

"What is that supposed to mean?"  Ciara grumbled as she hit her control pad buttons relentlessly.  "I mean, we are the Warriors.  Of course we can defend ourselves.  We're great fighters.  We've been in dozens, no, hundreds of situations that have proven that.  There isn't a thing that we aren't capable of facing.  None of us has ever been permanently injured.  Death is not…"

"Nooo!"  Marnee threw her controller at Brennan as he sliced her video game persona in two with a chainsaw.  Her square on the television froze as blood seemingly dripped over it while a death march played.

Gavin cocked an eyebrow at the open-mouthed blonde sitting at his right.  "You were saying?"

Marnee, Brennan, and Ciara had all arrived early in the afternoon to help Buffy, Angel, Willow, Dawn, Oz, Xander, and Anya with the preparations for the actual party.  The event had begun when people had started to wander in around five.  The party had swung quickly into life, but promptly at nine, the music had been shut off. 

After the last guest had left, the remaining group had settled in for the remainder of the night.  Anya had produced a homemade cake and cookie-dough-fudge-mint-chip ice cream, much to the delight of everyone present.  The family party was filled with tension.  For the sake of the twins, J.R., David, and Jenny, who appeared for the more intimate gathering, the older teenagers and adults acted as if nothing was wrong.  

At nine-thirty, Cordelia, Fred, Gunn, and Wesley arrived after a brief trip to Los Angeles, completing the assembly.  As the adults settled down with their coffee to discuss their adult things, the older teenagers retreated to Gavin's room to break in the video game that the birthday boy had received from Gunn and Fred.

"Whatever," Ciara mumbled.  She glanced at the clock on wall and sighed.  "I wonder where Jake is.  It isn't like him to be late and he's basically missed Gavin's b-day."

"I wish he'd call or something."  Marnee shook her head.  Her brother was supposed to have arrived at the house hours ago, but Jake had never shown up.  Marnee was trying hard to push her growing concern for her brother aside, knowing that if anything happened to him, she would know.  

"He would be able to make sense of all this, I know it," Brennan said longing for Jake's sharp mind.  "This situation is beginning to spiral out of control.  We need to do something.  They obviously think they have the right to make our decisions for us.  We could…"

Ciara elbowed her brother in the ribs, cutting him off, as Oz and Xander, J.R. in his arms, appeared at the bottom of the stairs.  Xander raised his hand and smiled awkwardly.  "Hey, um, Gavin, you have a visitor."

"Who?" Gavin asked in surprise.  Everyone he had ever met, save few, had already been to the house at one point or another.

Xander grimaced.  "I don't think I'm emotionally strong enough to tell you at this point."

Gavin tossed his controller aside, giving his friends a puzzled look.  He rose to his feet and started bounding up the stairs two at a time.  Brennan, Ciara, and Marnee looked at each other then, with a shrug, scrambled to do the same.  

Gavin walked in the kitchen to find… "Spike?"

"Evening, Gavril…er…Gavin."  William the Bloody raised his hand in greeting.  Buffy, Dawn, Angel, Willow, Anya, Cordelia, Fred, Gunn, and Wesley were all in the kitchen or standing at the doorway eyeing the bleach-blond vampire warily.  Oz and the baby-laden Xander stood beside the teens.  Spike ignored the adults and focused on the group of teenagers staring at him in shock.  He tossed Gavin a medium-sized package badly wrapped in newspaper.  "I was in the neighborhood and just happened to remember that this was your birthday, so I thought I'd make an appearance.  Say hello and all."

"Oh."  Gavin turned the parcel over in his hands.  Willow cleared her throat loudly and nodded at Gavin when he looked her way.  Without a moment's hesitation, Gavin tore into the wrapping.  His face lit up as the dirty newspaper fell to the floor to reveal a shiny Celtic dagger.  "Hey, thanks man…um, vamp…Spike."

The vampire started to smile, then caught himself.  Instead, he shrugged nonchalantly.  "Yeah, well, whatever.  Just found that thing lying around the crypt and thought you might enjoy it."

Anya beamed at the blond as she saw her son's face light up.  "Thank you, Spike.  And welcome home."

Xander nodded and shifted the baby so that he could put an arm around his wife.  "Yeah.  Thanks for dropping by."

"It was kind of you to remember," Willow began tentatively.  "So…how've you been these past few years?"

Spike rolled his eyes.  "Yes, witch, I still have the bloody chip.  I took care of your little problem, then went about my own personal business.  I decided to come back to town when I heard a Gummie had set its sights on the Hellmouth and its defenders.  Figured that meant you lot."

"What's a hellmouth?"  David and Jenny walked into the kitchen from the living room, each carrying an armful of dishes.  They dumped them into the already overflowing sink and turned around.  David looked at the adults curiously.  "And can I have some gummies?"

"I want gummies, too!"  The twins ran into the kitchen, Liam chasing Doyle with a large candle.  

Buffy grabbed Liam as he raced by her and hoisted him into her arms.  She yanked the candle out of his grasp and studied it.  "William Gillis Angel!  Where did you get this?"

The young boy's smile vanished as he looked into his mother's demanding eyes.  Doyle skidded to a halt to watch his brother get in trouble when he noticed that the leg he was hiding behind didn't belong to anyone he knew.  He looked up into the clear blue eyes of the stranger.  "Now what do we have here?  Another mini-Poof?  Sire, can't you keep it in your pants?"

The adults all rolled their eyes, the teens suppressed snorts, and Jenny went beet red at Spike's comment.  Doyle giggled gleefully as the vampire picked the four-year-old up.  David just studied the bleached blond.  "Sire?  Who are you?"

"Just an old friend of your parents," Spike said with a smirk.  He cocked his head at the boy.  "Would you be David then?"

David nodded, then scowled.  "An old friend?  But you can't be more than a few years older than Lexie and Joyce.  And where are you from, the 1980s?"

Spike raised an eyebrow at the boy, then looked up at Willow.  "Real piece of work you got here, Red."

Willow opened her mouth to retort, but no sound came out.  Angel sighed and shook his head.  "Jenny, David, Doyle, and Liam.  Meet Spike.  He and I go way back.  And yes, David, while I am older than Spike, rest assured that Spike is a _lot_ older than he appears to be.  Spike, you apparently know David.  The blushing violet behind you is Jenny, Xander and Anya's daughter.  The boy Buffy has is Liam and the one you're holding is Doyle.  They're mine and Buffy's."

Spike smiled at the boy in his arms.  "Pleased to meet you."

Doyle giggled, gazing intently at Spike.  He smiled and sniffed the air in front of Spike.  The four-year-old's smile broadened.  "You smell funny."

The entire group in the kitchen burst out laughing.  Even Spike chuckled, raising his eyebrows and pretending to inhale a large breath.  "Do I?  Haven't noticed myself."

"Smells like Daddy," Doyle stated.  

Angel and Buffy's grins immediately vanished.  Angel walked across the room and took his son from his childe.  He looked the boy in the eyes, trying to keep his demeanor casual.  "What do you mean he's smells like me, little man?"

Doyle grinned.  "Smells like you do, don't he Liam?"

"Just like Daddy but more," Liam replied.  "Like the special sprinkles Daddy puts on our cookies."

"Cinnamon," Angel whispered.  He put Doyle down and turned to Jenny.  "Hey Jen, will you and David take these two and watch some cartoons?  We need to have a talk with your brother and the others."

Jenny's eyes sparkled at the prospect of the older teens being in trouble.  She leaned closer to Angel to whisper in his ear.  "Sure but…be careful.  He just doesn't feel right."

Angel watched as the girl led the other three young children out of the room.  Once they were out of sight, Angel sat down into a chair.  "Doyle and Liam said that Spike and I smell like cinnamon.  Spike more than I."

Xander shrugged.  "So?"

Spike rolled his eyes.  "Cinnamon is the closest human smell that compares with how a vampire smells to another vampire, wanker.  Looks like you got two more special tikes on the way."

"More than one," Angel admitted as he looked apologetically toward Xander and Anya.  "Jenny warned me to be careful because Spike, I quote, 'doesn't feel right.'"

Ciara furrowed her brow.  "No way.  Bruce already tested Jenny.  She failed.  Didn't get one vibe off anything we put before her."

Anya groaned miserably.  "When did he test her?"

Jake ticked off a few fingers as he counted backwards in his head.  "One year, three months, and eight days ago.  Give or take."

"Some part-demons have their powers from birth but some don't get their powers until they reach their demon part's coming of age," Anya explained miserably.  "Some demons it's fifty, some it's twenty-one, but for vengeance demons it's fourteen."

"Well, then, I hate to break it to you, but David already tested positive for a warlock," Marnee told the group.

"Wait a minute," Cordelia said as she held up a hand.  "Children can inherit their parents demon parts?  Even if they're mostly human like Anya?"

Anya shrugged.  "Part demon is part demon.  Why?"

"Diana," Wesley said as he realized why his wife was beginning to look ill.  

Brennan looked at the actress, pitying the movie star's daughter.  "So, Aunt Cordy, what type of demon are you?"

Wesley shook his head.  "We don't know."

Buffy sighed.  "This just keeps becoming more and more nightmarish."

"Well," Spike quipped, breaking the somber mood.  "Nothing much has changed here.  Depressing, as usual."

"Spike!"  Dawn rolled her eyes.  She motioned with her hand towards the living room.  "I'm going to watch TV.  Anyone up for late night reruns?"

Spike smiled at the woman.  "You know I'm always up for some telly time, Nibblet."

"I think I'll pass," Cordelia muttered as she stifled a yawn.  "I'm suddenly feeling very tired.  I guess all this running around finally caught up with me."

Spike snorted loudly.  "Your loss.  Come on, then, luv."  Spike tossed an arm around Dawn and they both strolled out of the kitchen.

"The twins' room is all made up for you."  Anya addressed Cordelia while pointing at the stairs in the hall.  "Second door to the left."

Cordelia murmured her thanks then turned to leave.  Wesley followed her, nodding goodnight to the assembled group.  Gunn glanced at Fred.  "Well?  TV or bed?"

"I'm thinkin' bed," Fred replied drowsily.  Gunn smiled at her and took her hand as they disappeared into the hall.

At that moment, J.R. started to get fussy.  Xander grunted as he struggled to keep the child in his grip.  "Well, I think that's my cue to get this one to bed."

"Xander, I want to put _my_ baby to bed," Anya smiled.  Xander gazed back at his wife.  It became very clear very quickly that Anya was not talking about the squirming ten-month-old.

Gavin watched, horrified, as his parents ogled each other.  He lowered his head into his hands.  "For the love of god, just go!"

Xander and Anya left the room without any sign of embarrassment.  Angel chuckled at Gavin's reaction.  "Hey, Willow, are you all leaving yet?"

"Nah, I feel like some TV," Willow said as she smiled.

"Would you mind keeping an eye on the kids?" Angel asked as he rolled up his shirtsleeves.  He turned his attention toward the large pile of dishes lying in the sink.

"No problem," Oz replied with a nod of understanding and both he and Willow exited the kitchen.  Buffy followed them to make sure the twins were behaving.

"I'm hungry," Gavin stated looking around the room.

Marnee rolled her eyes at her friend.  "You're always hungry."

"True," Gavin admitted with a grin.  "You guys up for some leftover cake and ice cream?"

"What idiot would say no to that?" Brennan asked with a smile.

"Your sister." Marnee replied with a straight face.  Ciara shot her best friend a withering look as the four teens settled around the kitchen table to finish off the cake and ice cream while Angel began to attack the dishes.  Down the hall the phone rang and Brennan practically bolted from his seat to answer it.

"Hello, Harris house of the undead," Brennan said into the mouthpiece seriously.  "Oh, hey man.  Where are you?  Wh…uh huh.  No, it's only…WHAT?!  Why?!  Okay, I'll tell them.  Tomorrow morning.  We'll be there."

Brennan hung the phone up and ran into the kitchen.  Gavin, Ciara, and Marnee looked up as he flopped down into a chair across from them.  "That was Jake.  He apologizes for being a no show, Gav, but I think you'll understand.  He went to see Bruce this afternoon.  You'll never guess who's in town."

Gavin looked up from his fourth piece of cake in one night.  "Um…is it a good who or a bad who?"

Brennan grinned widely.  "Good who."

"Who what?" Buffy asked as she walked into the kitchen.  Angel smiled at her and offered her a cup of coffee.  She accepted it and gave him a quick kiss before turning her attention to the group of teenagers.

Brennan glanced up at his mother.  "A friend of ours.  Has to do with the Warriors."

Ciara regarded her brother coolly.  "Who?"

"Nuh uh," Brennan laughed and shook his head.  "Gotta guess.  I'll give you a hint though.  Old, glasses, England, Watcher.  Guess that's four hints."

Marnee almost choked on her ice cream.  "_HIM_!  He's _here_!  As in Sunnydale?"

Ciara giggled excitedly.  "Shut up!  You are _so_ kidding us."

"What gives?" Gavin asked happily.  "Are we going to start Christmas training early?"

Brennan shrugged.  "Dunno.  All I know is that he's in town, staying with Bruce.  They want to talk to us first thing tomorrow morning.  They'll meet us at the shop."

Buffy listened to the exchange with interest.  "New Watcher?  I thought Bruce is your Watcher.  I think I'm lost."

Gavin swallowed a mouth full of ice cream.  "Well, Bruce is our Watcher.  This guy only comes in over Christmas and during the summer.  He's like a Nazi with the training, but he's cool.  Always teaching us some weird thing or another.  He's like one of those cool old guys that knows everything."

"He does know all," Marnee smirked as she tossed her fork aside.  "He's the one that found us.  You know, through rumors and mystical signs and stuff."

Angel smiled wryly at them from his station at the sink.  He turned, drying a ceramic ice cream bowl with his lucky dishtowel.  "Is that so?"

Ciara nodded.  "Absolutely.  They're right.  Giles is the greatest."

Buffy dropped the cup of coffee in mid-sip.  The liquid went everywhere as the mug shattered into a dozen pieces when it hit the hard floor.  Angel stopped washing the bowl.  He ignored the mess on the floor and stared in shock at the teens.

Buffy shook her head slowly, her face completely ashen.  "Wh…who?"

Brennan's smile vanished.  "Um, Rupert Giles.  He's the head of the Watcher's Council."

Buffy leaned back against the wall to steady herself.  She slowly sunk to the floor.  The woman looked completely lost.  "He would never…"

Buffy was cut off as Angel threw the bowl in his hands into the sink.  It exploded with a loud crash.  The teens stiffened and watched as the man slumped over the sink, clutching the counter top in a grip that had already whitened his knuckles, looking defeated.  Buffy wrapped her arms around her knees and pulled them close to her.  She rested her head on them and allowed the tears to come.

Dawn, Willow, Spike, and Oz ran into the kitchen, followed closely by Jenny, David, Liam, and Doyle.  At the table sitting silently, the teens glanced at them, scared, shocked, and confused all at the same time.  Willow saw Buffy on the floor and immediately turned to Angel.  "What's wrong?  We heard a bang."

Angel turned to Willow, his face full of sorrow, betrayal, and anger.  "It was Giles, Willow.  Giles is the head of the Council."

Willow stared at Angel, not understanding what he meant.  Angel looked past the redhead to the four younger children.  "Jenny, David, take the twins upstairs."

Jenny glanced from her uncle to her brother then back again.  "But--"

"_Now_, Jennifer," Angel said sternly.  Jenny and David both paled and turned to quickly herd the frightened four-year-olds from the room.  Once they were gone, Angel turned his gaze back to Willow.  "Giles is responsible."

Angel nodded towards the teens.  Willow turned to follow her friend's eyes.  She stared at the teens for a moment before she gasped loudly, her eyes widening as she realized what the ex-vampire meant.  Her face filled with pain as her eyes filled with tears.  "What?  No!  No, Angel, it's not true.  He wouldn't do that…not to us!  He's…Giles…No!"

Willow burst into tears.  She turned to Oz, who had caught on the moment that Angel had said Giles' name.  Willow flung herself into the arms of her husband.  Oz held her as his usually neutral expression contorted into one of anger.  "Shh, Will.  It's okay."

"_It's not okay!_" Buffy shouted angrily from her seat on the floor.  Angel looked at the slumping form of his wife as if he had forgotten she was there.  He took three long strides towards her, then slid to the floor by her side.  His chocolate eyes met her hazel ones.  Seeing her husband's face, Buffy's anger quickly vanished but the pain stayed.  She began to cry again.  "Nothing's ever okay.  Why is it never okay, Angel?  How could he?"

"Bloody hell," Spike muttered as he shook his head and began to pace the room.  Dawn watched all five of her friends, her shock running deeper than she would have imagined.

Summoned by the commotion, Xander and Anya sped into the kitchen.  Their clothes were rumpled and their hair was disheveled from their recent activities.  Close behind were the still drowsy Cordelia, Wesley, Fred, and Gunn, all dressed in their pajamas.

They quickly took in the scene.  Oz held Willow in the middle of the room as she wept.  Buffy had her face buried against Angel's shoulder.  Spike was repeatedly pacing the length of the kitchen.  Dawn was rooted where she stood.  They paid the entering group no notice.

Xander turned to the teens.  "What happened?  And why are the twins, Jen, and David huddled upstairs as if they had just seen their first demon?  They didn't did they?"

"N-no, of course not."  Marnee shook her head, confused and frightened.  "I…I…I don't know.  I think they know the head of the Council, the guy that found us and oversees our training.  Rupert Giles."

"What?" Cordelia shrieked, instantly becoming livid.  The actress stared at the teens, the wrath of Queen C from days of old flashing through her eyes.

"G-man?" Xander whimpered numbly, going limp.  

Wesley shook his head in disbelief.  "No."

"He…he was the one who called you?" Anya asked, her mind becoming fuzzy.  Fred hurried to the ex-demon's side and wrapped a steadying arm around her.  Gunn had done much of the same with Cordelia, although he was more restraining the actress than supporting her.

Brennan looked to his friends as all the adults were crushed by what the teens thought was good news.

Me Again 

Aaaaahhhhh!  Bad Giles!  The betrayal of the father-figure comes out.  Always a bad moment when you find out your parents are less than you think (hmm. . .am I detecting a sub-theme?).

Anyways, in case you were wondering, this story goes up to the season finales of 6/3 (with me choosing to ignore some stuff).  Giles came back at the end of season six, helped talk Willow down from her bad spell (no pun intended), but then in my world, he went back to England leaving Willow to recuperate with Buffy.  Which she obviously does.  But they never hear from Giles again.  Not a phone call, not a post card.  If you read my pre-quel series, you would know this.

Oh, Faith's dead.  (I just love to throw these things out, don't I?)  I meant for it to be deduced by the whole new Malaysian Slayer thing.  Faith's the only one who can pass on the torch, remember?  I know, I hate that she's dead, she's probably my favorite character.  But do the dead we love ever really leave us?  (That's a movie line, isn't it?  Damn, where have I heard that?  Ten bonus points to whoever can fill me in!)  Anyways, that part isn't up yet, but her death carries some major weight with the Scoobs in _As the World Goes Round_ (the pre-quel series!  Go read it!).  That part will be _Part Ten: To Be a Fighter_.  I know, it's supposed to be a fluff series but…blgh!  I can't do it, I tell you!  Life isn't fluffy!  So, while it still contains some nauseatingly sweet fluffy parts, there are a few moments that will catch you by your toes.

Oh, another reason to check it out:  Part Seven (to be posted in the very near future) is entitled _The Babysitter_.  Guess who?  There could also be an infamous game of Pretty, Pretty Princess played, too. . .

}ϊ{ Flutterby


	15. Chapter Thirteen

**Disclaimer:  See Author's Notes**

Buffy threw the door open as she led the group into The Quill and Parchment.  At the long table sat Bruce.  Beside him stood an elderly, but healthy looking man.  Buffy marched right up to him, drew back her fist, and struck him across the face.  

The old man took a step back to steady himself.  He quickly regained his balance and turned to face his assailant.  He took off his glasses and began to clean them as he smiled down at the angry woman.  "Hello, Buffy."

Buffy shook in fury as she stood before her old Watcher and mentor.  "Why, you arrogant son of a bitch!"

She drew back to hit him again but was stopped by Ciara.  Her daughter grabbed her wrist and stepped between her and the man.  "Mom!"

Brennan appeared beside his sister, shielding the older man from the group.  "Mom, you can't do this!"

"Yeah, Buff," Xander called from behind her.  "Save some for the rest of us.  I think we all deserve one good swing before you get all Slayer strength with him."

Gavin, who was standing between his parents, looked at his father in shock.  "Dad!"

Giles looked at the group of angry adults and confused children.  He smiled.  "Xander.  Nice to see you haven't changed."

Xander glared at the man with contempt.  "English bastard!"

"Xander!" Willow admonished him.  Xander turned to her, but she simply shook her head, looking pointedly at the teenagers.  She then turned toward Giles.  The redhead's eyes burned with barely contained fury.  "You.  You did this."

Giles sighed and glanced at the floor.  A moment later he looked back up at the group and nodded.  He took a seat beside Bruce, who was watching the display with mild interest.  "I did."

Willow inhaled sharply and shook her head.  "How could you…?"

Giles smiled sadly at the adults he still looked upon as if they were his own.  "I'm not going to apologize.  The decision to involve your children was one of the most difficult I've ever made.  It was also the most clear."  He glanced towards Buffy.  "I told you once that I've sworn to protect this world, and that I'd do whatever I thought was necessary."

"And I think I told you that if you tried to hurt my loved ones that I would kill you."  Buffy placed her hands on her hips and shifted into a threatening stance.

Brennan and Ciara turned to stare at the older man in disbelief.  Brennan took a step to the side and tugged Ciara along with him.  They slowly retreated to the side of the shop.  "How…"

Giles ignored the pair and gazed at the adults sorrowfully.  "I…I had hoped that you would never discover the truth.  It was a burden I never wished upon any of you." 

Anya stood beside her son with an arm draped around him.  "We gave it up.  We left that behind us.  For them.  We wanted to protect them."

Giles breathed a sigh.  "Anya, you did protect them.  You made the right decision.  I know what that must have cost all of you.  I couldn't be more proud."

Anya shook at Giles' words and clutched Gavin to her even closer.  Xander wrapped a protective arm around them both.  Willow began to cry silently into Oz's shoulder.  Buffy never once stopped staring at the man before her, but instead slumped into Angel, who held her from behind.

"Don't," Dawn spat at him from her place at the rear of the group.  "Don't you dare talk to any of them like you care.  I won't allow it."

Dawn, Wesley, and Cordelia pushed their way to the front of the assembly.  Wesley glared at the older man that had once been his idol.  He shook his head.  "_We_ won't allow it.  How can you stand there and act like you care when you betrayed these people…_these_ people?!  These that you protected and claimed as your own."

Cordelia stepped in front of her husband and looked into Giles' eyes.  A moment later, she raised her hand and slapped him across the face.  "You do not get to talk to them as if you care about their feelings.  You went behind their backs and used their children to further your own cause.  I think of what you were to all of us, and then of what you have done and it makes me sick."

Brennan and Ciara watched the display with wide eyes.  After Cordelia slapped Giles, Fred appeared between them, tugging gently on their arms. "C'mon kids.  Ya'll don't need to be here."

Fred pulled Ciara and Brennan towards the rear of the shop.  Marnee and Jake were already standing awkwardly next to the door and Gunn was trying to guide Gavin away from the scene with little success.  Fred smiled patiently and ran her hand soothingly over Ciara's shoulders.  "It's all okay.  We'll just go grab some burgers."

"One moment, ducks!"  Spike stepped in front of Fred and the teens, speaking for the first time.  He waved at the five teens.  "All right, Scraps, come here."

The five teens glanced around uncomfortably, then approached the blond vampire.  He motioned for them to line up so that both the parents and the Watchers could see them clearly.

"Listen close, 'cause I'm only going to say this once and later I'll deny that I ever said it at all.  But you need to understand," Spike told the teens before him.  They watched their old protector intently.  "I know you've been doing this for three years.  I know you have probably been in many deadly situations.  All five of you know what it is to be a fighter."

The teens nodded slowly.  Spike motioned to the group before them.  "Your parents are fighters.  Since the beginning of high school, some before, it's all they've known.  They have sacrificed.  Friends, family, things, themselves, now you; they've given all they have to this fight.  Their blood and pain and tears was the price demanded so that billions of people that could care less could go about their empty little lives.  They are heroes, in every sense of the word.  They only stopped their fight when it became clear that they had to choose between the fight and their children.  You.  In my book, that makes them even bigger heroes, because once you begin the fight, it's hard turn away from it."

Spike stopped and turned to the two Watchers sitting at the table.  "Giles knows what they've given.  Once upon a time, he gave it his all, too.  But he lost the mission.  He turned his back on our heroes.  And when they gave up their fight to save you from being swallowed by it, he seized his opportunity.  He used you so his job was easier.  He is not a hero."

Spike finished his speech, then, grabbing a large blanket, he headed for the door.  Without so much as glance over his shoulder, he threw the blanket around his body and ran outside onto the street.  He left behind a very stunned group of people.

Buffy was the first to regain her senses.  She faced Giles and Bruce, determined.  "Here is what I see happening.  Both of you will leave.  Leave this town.  Leave this state.  Leave this continent!  I want you gone.  Wesley will serve as official Watcher, reinstated to the Council at full salary."

Giles raised his eyebrows, thinking back to the time when he had last seen her like this.  "Do you want that retroactive?"

Buffy glared at her old mentor as she continued.  "Why not?  He will contact the Council if and when needed.  Do we have an understanding?"

Giles cocked his head as he thought it over.  Then he smiled and offered Buffy his hand.  "Agreed."

Buffy ignored the hand and she and the rest of the adults turned to leave.  Bruce sprang to his feet.  "Now, wait just a minute!  I refuse to just walk away from my charges!"

"Yeah," Gavin shouted.  The teens stood where they had been left, staring at their parents retreating forms.  "What makes you think we would agree to having Uncle Wes as our Watcher?"

"He can't even carry a crossbow correctly!" Brennan joined in.

"No offense, Uncle Wes," Marnee called quickly to Wesley.

"None taken," Wesley smiled over his shoulder.

The other adults didn't even pause as they filed out the door, except for Angel.  He stopped and turned.  He looked first at the angry teenagers then to the older Englishman.  "Be gone by tomorrow."


	16. Chapter Fourteen

**Disclaimer:  See Author's Notes.**

The next morning, Brennan and Ciara were ready to face the day as soon as the first rays of sunlight crept over the horizon.  They were both careful to slip silently through the house and out the front door.  Jake was already outside, Marnee and Gavin both in the back of the van.  Brennan and Ciara scrambled into their own seats and the group wordlessly headed to the Quill and Parchment.  

They arrived at the small shop to find it empty.  The door and windows were boarded up tight.  Brennan and Jake hefted Marnee up to the small window near the ceiling, the only window not boarded up.  Marnee peered in to find the shop completely stripped of its contents.  

From there the five teens went straight to the small condo Bruce had rented.  There they found Mrs. Crouse, the landlady, going through the vacant house.  She informed them that Mr. Howard had broken his lease and had departed late last night without leaving a forwarding address.

Defeated, the five friends parted ways.  Gavin headed to the college with Jake to watch videos while Marnee headed to the magic shop to stock up on the supplies she had lost with their mentor's departure.  Brennan and Ciara, needing to grab a few things, headed home.  

Brennan pushed opened the kitchen door and stumbled in, followed by a numb Ciara.  Angel looked up from the special Sunday edition of the Sunnydale Gazette he had been perusing at the table.  He smiled as his children entered the house.  "Morning, guys.  I didn't expect to see you all up this early on the weekend."

Brennan glared at the older man as Ciara simply pulled out a chair and slumped into it.  Angel looked at the sullen faces of his children and shifted uncomfortably in his seat.  "Is everything all right?"

"Angel?  I just looked upstairs and…" Buffy walked into the kitchen and saw her family seated around the table.  She smiled.  "Oh.  Well, they're here then.  How come you two are up so early?"

Neither Brennan nor Ciara acknowledged their mother.  Buffy looked to Angel.  She met his concerned gaze and he shrugged and mouthed, "I don't know."  

Buffy stepped further into the room and took a seat beside Ciara.  She slowly ran her fingers through her daughter's shimmering hair.  Ciara stiffened at the touch, but didn't look up.  Buffy bit her lip uneasily.  "Ciara?  Baby?  Are you okay?"

"They're gone," Ciara murmured softly.  "They're really gone." 

Buffy let out her breath quickly.  She rolled her head back and sighed in relief.  "So that's what you're upset about."

Brennan frowned at the woman as she relaxed, his anger growing by the second.  "Yeah.  We're a little bit upset."

Angel folded the newspaper up and tossed it aside as he watched his children intently.  "I know you two are a bit distressed but…"

"Distressed?" Ciara asked, coming out of her stupor.  "_Distressed_?!  Heck, no, feelin' fine! You two are a real piece of work, you know that?"

"Hey, calm down," Angel pointed sternly at his daughter.  "We were just doing what was best for you."

Brennan scoffed, shaking his head.  "For people that barely know anything about us, you seem to know an awful lot about what's best for us."

"Yeah, helping us out ever so much by exiling our Watchers!"  Ciara looked up at her mother, eyes full of fury.  "You really think that was in our best interest?  Or did it make the situation less complicated for you?"

"Hey, _we_ are the parents!" Buffy nearly shouted.  "It is not your place to question us.  You get the benefit of learning from our mistakes."

"I'd rather take the chance and learn on my own, thank you," Brennan replied acidly.

Angel put his hand on Brennan's shoulder.  "Well, we can all work together now.  We can guide you, show you the paths to take, the choices to make…"

"Get off of me!" Brennan yelled angrily as he jerked out of his father's reach.  "You had no right.  No right!  You don't get to live our lives for us!  You screwed us over even more than usual!"

A whimper came from the door.  All four turned to see Doyle and Liam trembling in the doorway, staring at their arguing family.  Doyle was near tears.  "Brennan…Momma…what's wrong?"

Brennan looked from the twins to his parents.  "You stay out of our business."

Ciara stood and grabbed her brother's arm, pulling him to the door.  She pushed him outside and turned, giving her parents a scathing look before leaving herself.  


	17. Chapter Fifteen

**Disclaimer:  See Author's Notes.**

**Warning:  If you've had a problem with the way the kids have been reacting to their parents and any type of hinting that the Scoobies are not the end all greatness, then don't read this chapter.**

"What do you think we should do about the whole Watcher situation?" Marnee asked her friends as they walked out the front doors of the high school and into the bright, warm, sunny December day.

Gavin raised his hand to his head and shielded his eyes from the dazzling light that assaulted their fluorescent-accustomed senses.  He squinted into the bright glare that surrounded him and moaned.  "You know, I'm kind of getting tired of this.  I mean, sun.  Great.  Don't you ever wish it got cold, I mean really cold?  Maybe snowed?"

Brennan peered skyward at the clear blue heavens then snorted.  "Yeah.  The sun.  Completely evil, doesn't do anything for us at all.  Except for the fact that it does everything.  Including keeping those horrible big bad things away from us so we can have a few hours of a normal life.  Just terrible."

Ciara and Marnee both turned to study the two boys.  Marnee rolled her eyes as Ciara just shook her head and turned to walk away.  Marnee followed her best friend, tired and exasperated, and they both veered off the sidewalk into the small cluster of trees that led to Oak Street.  The boys ignored their female companions' acts of irritation and trailed after them, a few paces behind.  Gavin shook his head vehemently as he continued to ramble.  "No, I don't mean the sun.  I want seasons, man.  You know, like fall, or winter, or spring.  I mean, it's December!"

Brennan bit his bottom lip, deep in concentration, before nodding in agreement.  "Yeah.  It would be kinda cool if it actually got cold in the winter.  We could wear those nifty ski jackets to school.  And snow boots.  And, hey, snow!"

"Snow," Gavin repeated wistfully.  He smiled his cocky little half-smile as a familiar yearning took hold.  "You know we once were in the snow.  When we were babies.  Our parents took us to some winter lodge.  We have pictures.  All of us playing in the snow."

"I dream about the snow sometimes," Brennan sighed, his eyes drooping as he strained to call up an ancient dream.  "Clear white crystal flakes just tumbling from the sky."

"Oh good god!" Ciara shouted, nearly in anger.  She rounded on the boys, throwing her arms to an invisible power in the sky, thoroughly irritated.  "The past week we've had our world turned upside down.  We found out that our parents are as screwed up as we are.  We lost our Watcher.  We have an extremely intelligent Gummie-thing to deal with.  Put it all together and it seems like we're heading for disaster and all you two can babble on about is the freaking snow!  Get over it!  We live in Southern California.  It never has and never will snow in Southern California!"

"Well, actually it did snow in Sunnydale."  Willow smiled as she and Jake appeared beside the group from behind a large tree.  "Once, when I was around your all's age."

Jake, who had been looking a bit dejected, raised his eyebrows in surprise.  "Really?"

Willow smiled at her son and nodded.  "Oh, yeah.  _Feet_."  The redhead turned her attention to the four stunned younger teens.  "Afternoon, guys.  I guess school was good since you seemed to have actually attended."

"Yeah, great," Marnee replied, looking her mother over uneasily.  "Mom, please don't take this the wrong way, but why are you here?"

Willow grinned broadly.  "Besides the fact that I work here?"

"The reason you apparently left school early to find Jake and bring him here to follow us into the woods is that you're a teacher?" Brennan asked dubiously. 

"Well, we wanted to have a word with you," Willow said, purposefully being vague.  

"We?"  Gavin repeated, looking worried.

Willow nodded and checked her watch.  "Okay, we don't have much time.  The van's this way."

The group of five looked at each other.  Jake shrugged.  "I dunno.  She came and pulled me out of my study group."

"This could be bad," Ciara whispered over her shoulder as she followed Willow out of the trees.  

Brennan raised his eyebrows at his sister.  "Ya think?"

"Maybe it won't be," Marnee squeaked hopefully.  "Maybe…maybe it's a nice family picnic."

Gavin rolled his eyes at the girl.  "Oh, yeah Marn.  Wasn't it you that said something about skipping through the daisies singing the wonders of life?"

"Laugh it up, Mr. Compass," Marnee sneered.

When they finally reached the van, it was already started with Willow waiting impatiently behind the wheel.  All five clambered into the large vehicle and took a seat.  Willow beamed at them as she shifted the car into drive and took off.

Less than ten minutes later, after a wordless drive, Willow pulled the van up to an old abandoned warehouse on the outskirts of town.  The older redhead simply slid out of the door and strolled in.  The group she left behind stared at the building.  

The warehouse was large but seemed like it could fall apart at any moment.  The outer coverings were dirty and rusted.  Heaps of trash were piled high all around the building.  Scraps of metal and wood that had once obviously been a part of the warehouse now littered the deserted parking lot.

"Well," Ciara sighed, "this doesn't look very promising."

"It could be worse," Jake replied with a shrug.

Marnee turned and stared at him.  "How, dear brother, could this possibly be worse?"

Jake looked at the young redhead seriously.  "Well, _dear sister_, we could be here to root out a demon nest."

"Hmm," Brennan murmured grimly.  "Demons or parents.  Such a hard choice."

"You guys are inspiring, really."  Gavin rolled his eyes and started to pick his way very carefully across the cluttered lot.  After a moment of contemplation, Brennan followed suit.  Jake trailed after the two boys with a sighing Marnee right behind him.  A very reluctant Ciara stomped around outside for a moment, then followed her friends.  

Ciara pushed her way into the building and froze.  Her breath hitched in her throat as she looked around at the inside of the building.  It was huge.  The main room took up most of the building, and appeared to be completely clean and stable.  The back of the room was set up like a large gymnasium.  The floor was carpeted in thick gym mats while the walls were lined with a rubber-looking material.  Towards the left of the matted area was a gymnastics horse while a few different types of workout dummies and punching bags littered the rest of the mats.  In the far right corner of the area were quite a few weapon cabinets.  From where Ciara was standing, she could already make out several types of weapons from ancient clubs and swords to the most modern firearms. The front of the large arena was set up more like a lounge/library.  The front wall was lined with bookcases.  The shelves were all crammed full of books, some Ciara recognized as rare volumes that had been prized possessions of Bruce's.  A square table, large enough to comfortably seat twenty, ran parallel to the front wall.  The table itself had a small notebook, lamp, and a cup of pens and pencils at each place setting.  The closer end of the right wall contained a small recreation area that housed a recreation center with, among other things, a stereo system and a 36-inch television.  A large sectional sofa formed a semicircle around the entertainment center.  Directly across from the lounge against the left wall was a small kitchen complete with a smaller table, a refrigerator, a large sink, cabinets, microwave and an island stove/oven.  The only other doors beside the front door were two on the side, one marked by a picture of a badly drawn girl, the other by an equally ugly boy.

Jake looked around the room with his eyebrows raised.  "Wow."

Ciara found her voice with great difficulty.  "I'm not sure that 'wow' even begins to cover it."

Angel, who was seated at the large table with Fred, Anya, Spike, and Gunn, looked up at the bewildered teens.  He smiled and glanced around the room.  "Pleased to know you like it."

Brennan looked around to see that all four adults were dressed in dark colored workout clothes.  He raised his eyebrows, hoping that this wasn't what he thought it was.  "Okay.  What's going on?"

Xander smiled at the group as he took a slice of pizza out of the microwave in the kitchenette.  "We look forward to completing your training.  In time you will call us master."

"Okay, that's something from one of your weird movies, right Dad?" Gavin asked, confused.

Xander gawked at his son, dropping the slice of pizza to the floor.  "_Weird_?!  Come on Gavin.  Don't tell me I did that bad a job raising you."

Ciara ignored the father and son and looked to her own father.  "Training?  You guys are going to train us?"

"Yep," Buffy replied as she appeared from the behind the door with the picture of a girl, wearing her own gym clothes.  "Ready to begin?"

Marnee had to bite the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing in the adults' faces.  She coughed into her hand as she regarded them.  "You're serious."

Angel nodded and tossed them two duffel bags.  Brennan opened the bag to find his, Gavin's, and Jake's regular training clothes that they had stashed long ago in the Quill and Parchment.  He looked up at his father in confusion.  Angel simply pointed to the pair of doors.  "Bathrooms.  Go get changed."

Ciara took the girls' bag and grabbed Marnee by the wrist.  She pulled her friend across the warehouse and into the girls' bathroom.  Once inside, she pushed in the small button on the doorknob to lock the rest of the world outside of the room.  Then she threw the bag with all of her strength.  It flew over the comfortable looking bench that sat in the middle of the room, past the vanity that ran along the left wall, past the two toilet stalls and shower stall that were built into the right wall, and hit the far wall with a loud thump, busting the zipper and spilling the clothing inside to the floor.

Marnee rolled her eyes at her friend and walked across the room to gather up the spilt clothes.  She separated Ciara's skin-tight attire from her own more comfortable garments.  She unceremoniously flung Ciara's clothing at her as she began to strip out of her school clothes.  

Ciara looked at the outfit with contempt.  After a minute, Marnee was completely changed while Ciara was still giving the garments in her hand a disgusted look.  Marnee sighed.  "Ciara, come on.  What's your problem?"

Ciara raised her eyes to the redhead.  "My problem?  Besides the past week?"

Marnee shrugged.  "I know, but…well, this is how it is now.  Might as well play along, let them feel like they're actually in charge or whatever.  I just think we should pick our battles carefully."

"And a simple training session isn't that big a deal," Ciara finished for her friend.  She glanced at the clothes and, very reluctantly, began to change.

Marnee nodded as her friend slipped into her spandex tank top.  "And besides, maybe we might learn something from them."

Ciara snorted loudly.  Marnee gave her a weak smile and shrugged.  "Hey, it could happen."

Ciara giggled as she tied her hair up in a bun.  She tossed a couple of ties to Marnee, who immediately drew her hair into a ponytail.  Ciara nodded at the end result.  "Ready?"

Marnee pulled open the door and both girls stepped into the larger room.  Brennan, Gavin, and Jake were already on the mats running through the stretching techniques that Bruce had taught them long ago.  Ciara and Marnee dropped down to the floor and started running through their own exercises.  

"Whose turn is it to lead?" Marnee asked, spreading her legs as far apart as she could manage.

"That would be me." Gavin raised his hand awkwardly.  Marnee and Ciara straitened, awaiting the instructions they already knew by heart.  Gavin motioned.  "Okay.  Flex and down to the left."

Together all five raised their arms over their heads then flattened themselves against their left legs.  Ciara, already very limber, grabbed the bottom of her insole and pulled herself further down, stretching the muscles in her leg.  She glanced at the others to find them doing the same thing, each varying the simple stretch to fit their own state of flexibility.  Gavin, the least flexible of all, was way more agile than the average teen should be.  He grunted in effort and counted loudly.  "And hold two three four five six seven eight…Switch!"

The group straitened then leaned over again this time on their right.  They all repeated the stretch and held it for the count.  "Middle!"

This time the teens squashed themselves on the ground, each nimble enough to at least touch their noses to the ground.  "Repeat!"

They repeated the cycle four more times.  By the time they were done with the fifth rotation, the adults were watching them with interest.  Angel cleared his throat as the teens brought their legs together.  "You know, it's not enough to just stretch your legs--"

"Dad, we know," Ciara cut him off.  "We know our routine.  Just let us follow it."

Angel nodded and settled back into a chair as the teenagers continued their stretches.  Half an hour later, they had effectively flexed and stretched every muscle in each of their bodies that they voluntarily used and then some.  

Wesley nodded impressed.  "Very thorough exercise you have there.  At least we won't have to tweak your pre-training routine, although I might like to see you all try something that also hones those muscles.  Have any of you ever done any yoga?"

"They've been in my advanced class at the Y for years," Anya announced proudly to the Watcher.

"Marnee and Gavin do yoga during the cool down," Jake replied.  "Brennan, Ciara, and I prefer a mix with Tai Chi."

Angel brightened at this.  "Really? I used to use Tai Chi in my own…well, now's not really the time."

"Okay, we're limber," Marnee said as she rolled her head.  "Let's go ahead and get started so we can get this over with."  

Spike, Buffy, and Angel all rose to their feet as Gunn, Willow, Dawn, Xander, Anya, and Oz started to slide along the walls around the teens.  Spike smirked at the group.  "Are you sure 'bout that?"

Gavin shrugged.  "Yeah.  Let's go.  So, are we doing drills or something else?"

Wesley produced a few notebooks and, keeping one for himself, tossed the extras to Fred and Cordelia.  Wes flipped open the book and clicked the pen he took out of his pocket to the ready.  "Something else."

It was then that Ciara realized that the adults that were dressed in gym clothes were slowly circling the five teens.  She quickly sized up the adults and saw that Xander, Gunn, and Dawn were armed with broadswords and that Oz was gradually letting himself slip into his half-wolf form.  She could also feel the magical energy in the room shifting towards the black-eyed Willow.  Ciara quickly tried to process the information.  "Uh…"

"Care to dance?" Spike asked.  A split-second later he lunged at Ciara, forcing the girl to drop to her knees and roll away from the comforting presence of her friends.  The teenaged girl quickly jumped to her feet only to be brought down again by a painful kick to the ribs.

Angel stood above his daughter as she tried to recover some of her stolen wind.  Ciara coughed.  "Dad?"

Angel moved to kick her again, but the girl swiftly rolled away and onto her feet.  Angel smiled as he prepared to rush her.  "All right, my lamb.  Time to see what you're made of."

"Ciara!" Marnee yelled as the circle of adults closed in, separating the four teens from the fifth member of their group.  Marnee shifted her gaze to her mother.  "Mom, what is this?"

Willow shrugged as she raised her right hand in front of her, her eyes shifting into two ebony orbs.  "We weren't really able to judge how advanced your skills were with just questions and what we saw last week, so we decided to give you all a little test.  Something practical."

"Practical?" Marnee repeated incredulously.

Willow nodded then thrust her hand forward.  An invisible force instantly hit Marnee.  She flew across the room and slammed into the far wall.  Her breath rushed out of her lungs as she slid down to the floor.  "Ouch."

"Holy shit!" Brennan muttered as he watched Willow calmly walk around the group to her daughter.  Brennan's eyes widened as he realized Willow was going to attack the girl again.  He started to move to help the young redhead, but was forced to the ground as Buffy jumped up and kicked him straight in the jaw.

Buffy shook her head at the boy as he landed hard on the mat beneath him.  "Rule number one Bren: Always be prepared.  Well, actually rule number two after 'Don't die.'  And watch your language, young man."

Brennan scrambled to his feet.  "Great, Mom.  A little warning might have been nice."

Buffy shrugged and jabbed her son's stomach.  "It might be me, but I don't remember vamps and demons yodeling before they jump out of the bushes at you."

Brennan sneered at his mother as he swallowed back blood from where he had bit his tongue.  "Well, nowadays, they tend to rap."

Gavin fought the urge to laugh as he watched Buffy land another kick to Brennan's leg.  A moment later he felt a familiar feeling surge through his system and spun to his left.  

"For the love of everything that is holy!" Gavin squealed as he narrowly avoided a thrust from his father's sword.  He stood alert as Dawn, Xander, and Gunn slowly circled him, swords at the ready.

Dawn brought the tip of her weapon to bare and smirked.  "Surprised?"

"Only in the startled sense," Gavin replied distractedly as he took an unconscious step away from the trio.  He eyed their large, sharp weapons before twisting his head ever so slightly to call over his shoulder.  "Uh…Jake?  Need a little help here!"

"Just a bit busy," Jake shouted back as he stumbled away from his father.  Oz growled deep in his throat and slashed at his son with razor sharp claws.  Jake jerked back.  "Freak of nature!"

"Not really," Anya stated as she hit the boy with a weak ball of magical energy from behind.  Jake cried out as the ball struck him and turned to face Anya.  The ex-demon shrugged.  "Werewolves are completely natural."

"Okay this is a bit unfun," Jake muttered as Oz leapt onto his back.

Across the room, Buffy threw another punch that made contact with Brennan's side and, consequently, his kidneys.  He doubled over in pain and Buffy shook her head.  "Come on, Brennan.  I thought you've been doing this for years."

Buffy drew her hand back to strike again.  This time, when it flew free, Brennan raised his left arm to block.  Then he followed through with a right hook to his mother's own side.  He smiled as she retreated back a step.  "I have.  We all have.  Look for yourself."

Brennan glanced around at his friends, particularly Ciara and Marnee, before turning his attention back to his mother.  Marnee acknowledge his inspection by quickly darting her gaze around to verify that all the others weren't being given a thorough beating.  Then she looked at her mother. "Mom, you don't want to go where you're trying to go."

Willow ignored her daughter's warning and began to conjure a fireball in her hand.  When she threw it at the younger redhead, Marnee's eyes darkened and she simply waved her hand.  The fireball froze in midair then burned out.  

"You wanna play with us?"  Marnee's hand began to glow as she called upon her own magical training.  As soon as she had gathered enough energy to her she knocked her mother flat on the floor.  "Fine, we'll play."

"All right, Marn!"  Ciara shouted at her friend as she ducked a blow from Spike.  She whirled around on the balls of her feet, side-kicking Angel in the process.  Angel and Spike quickly regained their bearings and moved to rush the young blonde again.  

Angel lashed out with his right fist.  Ciara executed a swift knife-hand block and deferred the blow, using her free fist to knock her father in the head with a mean left hook.  She immediately brought the fist back to strike the other side of his head with a backhand.  She finished the combination by catching the point under his chin with an uppercut sending the beaten man to the floor.          

As her father fell away from her she rotated and blocked a punch from Spike.  Spike moved to kick and she did a handspring to dodge it, landing forcefully on the already fallen Angel.  Ciara smiled at him then kneed him in the stomach.  "Hi, Dad!"

"Ciara, behind you!" Gavin screamed at the girl as he saw Spike rush her from downwind.  He grinned when he saw the girl easily deflect the blow.  Gavin turned his attention back to his own three attackers.  They were tiring quickly, unable to catch the boy as he swiftly avoided their strikes.

On his left, Gavin caught the form of Dawn slump over a bit to try and catch her breath.  He seized his chance without a moment's hesitation as he jumped up and around, executing a perfect outside crescent kick.  It came in contact with Dawn's hand, knocking her to the floor and the sword from her grasp.  Gavin back kicked Gunn aside, then grabbed the sword.  He twirled it around several times in the sign of figure eight, testing its weight and capabilities, then brought it over his head in a giant flourish.  

Xander watched his son handle the sword, impressed.  "Wow, son.  Where did you learn to do that?  I can't do that."

Gavin lunged to strike.  Xander barely brought his sword up in time to block.  Gavin smirked.  "You don't say."

Jake smiled as he saw Gavin's fight turn in the younger boy's favor.  He turned his attention back to his own opponents.  He grunted as he brought his feet up between him and his father and kicked hard.  The half-wolf flew off of him and hit the ground hard.  

Jake twirled around and faced Anya with dark eyes.  The ex-demon didn't even have a chance to retreat before she rocketed backwards.  The invisible force carried her several feet before she landed in a heap on the floor in the far right corner.  "This is getting funner."

Oz howled and struck again only to be side-kicked in the gut.  Jake rotated on one foot and quickly shot a roundhouse kick to his father's face.  Using the small moment of peace, Jake called upon the magical energy that flowed through his being.  He raised his hand, palm facing the werewolf.  "Luna, goddess of the moon, I beseech thee, remove your blessed light."

Instantly, the half-wolf shifted back into the man that Jake had always known to be his father.  Oz looked down at his human hands in surprise.  "Jake…how…?"  Oz wasn't able to finish as Jake flicked his wrist.  The man rose off the ground and sailed backwards towards the corner Anya was still lying motionless in.

Brennan cartwheeled out of the way as Oz soared past, kicking Buffy with both feet in the process.  She stumbled backwards, fighting hard to maintain her balance.  Brennan stood in front of her, waggling his eyebrows at his mother.  "Come on, Mom.  At least _try_ to act like you're putting up a fight.  This is starting to become embarrassing."

Buffy's temper flared and she rushed Brennan.  He easily side-steeped her kick and picked the petite woman up by the waist.  The eighteen-year-old gave his mother a quick peck on the cheek before throwing her into the corner with a laugh.

Jake walked up to his friend and punched him playfully on the shoulder, trying to mask his fatigue.  "Good move."

Brennan laughed and pointed.  "Hey, check out your mom and your sister."

Jake followed his friend's gaze to see his mother panting, her magic energy almost spent.  Marnee smirked, noticing her mother's draining powers.  The witch smiled and easily conjured a large ball of light.  Marnee took a step towards her mother and raised her eyebrows.  "Not getting tired are we?"

"Not at all," Willow growled through clenched teeth.  She stood her ground and let the bolt hit her head on.  She went sprawling on the floor, landing right beside of Buffy.

Marnee tossed her hair over her shoulder as her eyes returned to their normal emerald color.  She stood a few feet from Gavin, watching the boy attack relentlessly.  Xander and Gunn parried the boy's blows while Dawn, in a last ditch effort, jumped on his back.  Surprised, Gavin dropped his sword.  He reached up and grabbed Dawn's arm, flinging her over his shoulder and onto the ground.  Then, with all his strength, he twirled her around by the arm.  After one rotation he released her and she went sliding away.  She skidded to a halt in front of her sister and Willow.

Gunn tried to use Gavin's momentary lapse in strength against him.  He jumped up to bring the hilt of the sword down on the boy's head.  Gavin easily stepped to the left then grabbed Gunn's arm with his right hand and the man's sword with his left.  He took the sword and used the larger man's momentum to kick him, sans sword, onto Willow.

Xander stood at the ready in front of his son with sweat rolling down his brow.  Gavin smiled at his father.  "Come on, Dad.  I thought I was a baby.  I thought I couldn't do this."

Gavin kicked the sword from Xander's hand.  A few moments later, Xander landed on the top of the growing heap of adults.

Gavin shifted his weight back into a more relaxed position as he turned to watch Ciara.  The girl paid no notice to the fact that she was the only one left fighting.  She ducked a blow from Spike while lashing out with her left foot to back kick Angel.  He slumped to the floor.  Ciara took the opportunity to grab the bleached vampire around the neck.  "You can dance, but can you fly?"

Apparently, Spike could fly and did so across the room.  He landed on the rising form of Buffy, knocking her back down to the ground.  "Spike!  Get off me!"

"Sod it all," Spike mumbled as he rolled off of the former Slayer.  "Didn't mean to wound your little Slayer pride."

Willow laughed at the pair as she sat up.  "I don't know what you…Ow!  Angel!"  

"Sorry, Willow," Angel mumbled as he rolled off the redhead, clutching his stomach.  

The adults all struggled to sit up.  The teens circled around them, happy but exhausted.  They were all five panting.  Gavin had his hands on his knees.  Ciara slumped over with a hand on her back.  

"Well," Brennan gasped for breath with a small smile.  "That was entertaining."

Buffy rolled her eyes and shoved Xander off of her.  "Entertaining?  No.  What that was is sloppy."

All five blinked.  Hard.  Marnee's eyebrows flew up.  "Brennan was sloppy?"

"All of you are sloppy," Angel said as he rose to his feet.  "Ciara is reckless.  She doesn't have any type of technique or think of the consequences of her actions.  She just attacks.  That can get you killed."

"Well, at least she attempted to attack," Oz huffed and pointed to Jake.  "This one here didn't even try.  He waited until I was ready to strike before he even tried."

"Plus, he didn't even try to do any magic until he ran out of physical blows," Anya pointed out.  "And his spells were out of date.  There were better alternatives he could have used to his advantage."

"Marnee went for showy spells rather than effective ones," Willow reported.  "It seemed to me that she took pleasure in being impressive to her opponent rather than take me down as soon as possible."

"Same with Gavin and his poor excuse for swordsmanship."  Xander looked at his son pointedly.  "He was always trying for something that looked big rather than the easier way.  I also noticed that he favors kicks in battle rather than working with his hands."

Buffy nodded, deep in thought.  "Brennan pulls his punches, leaves his blind sides open, and doesn't keep his weight in check properly."

The five teens started at the adults open-mouthed.  Jake shook his head.  "Okay and the people that kicked your all's asses would be…"

"We are human, well, sort of," Angel pointed out.  "Basically human and middle-aged, besides.  You're all five worn out.  The only person amongst any of you that had a rival with strength close to the level that you should be able to face was Ciara, and Spike couldn't even really attack her because of his chip.  We shouldn't have been much of a match for any of you."

"And watch your language," Willow said with her eyebrows raised.

"Okay, hold it," Gavin said as he felt the beginnings of anger start to boil through him.  "You all are basically saying we suck?"

"Now, I wouldn't go that far," Wesley started, looking up from the notes he'd been taking.

"But I would," Buffy muttered.

"Yeah?"  Marnee rose on her toes becoming defensive.  "Check out who's on the floor and who's standing."

"I honestly don't know how any of you survived this long," Brennan snorted.  "I mean, Mom, are you sure you were the Sunnydale Slayer?  I've seen better moves with Bruce."

"Not to mention, Dad," Gavin chuckled.  "God, Dad, did you seriously fight?  Aunt Dawn was better."

"Okay, now let's all calm down," Willow said slowly as she saw the anger start to rise in her friends and children.  

Marnee giggled.  "And Mom?  What magic level are you on?  Or are you even a real witch?  Dabble spells are all she pulled.  She can't be that powerful if that's all she's got.  Not to mention the pathetic-ness of you all trying to save face by criticizing our moves.  I would bet money that they are still lying to us.  Who's to say otherwise since they got rid of Bruce and Giles.  They were the only people that ever gave a rat's ass about us anyways."

"Marnee!" Oz snapped at his only daughter.  He stepped beside of Willow and put a supportive arm around her.

"What?" Jake shouted back.  "Judging from the way you, quote unquote 'fight', I don't think any of you have the right to criticize us."

"What is there to criticize?" Buffy smirked.  "I wouldn't even call that fighting."

"The point is for us to try and correct any flaws we might see in your techniques," Wesley stated, fighting to remain calm.

"Oh, shove it, English pansy!" Ciara barked.

"Ciara Shannon Angel!" Angel admonished.

"And you!"  Ciara whirled on Angel.  "I thought you were supposed to have been this real bastard of a vampire.  Did all that experience go with kids?"

"I think his experience ran more with mind games," Brennan spat out, bitterly.  "Remember?  He ran some good ones on the group way back when after screwing Mom!"

As soon as the words were out of Brennan's mouth, he knew he had crossed a line.  He was so angry he almost didn't care.  The adults glared at the boy furiously as Angel slumped to the floor looking sick.

"Where in god's name did you even hear about that?!" Xander screamed.

"What?" Gavin smirked.  "Don't like it that we know all your dirty little secrets?  Demon magnet?"

Willow clenched her fists angrily.  "You don't even know what you're talking about."

"Don't we, Mom?" Marnee snarled.  "I wonder how much it would take to make you go evil again.  Hurt us?"

"That is enough!"  Dawn stepped between the two groups.  Ciara opened her mouth to say something but Dawn cut her off.  "And if you even think of saying something about the whole Glory incident, I'll knock you into next Tuesday.  Now, I don't know where you five got your information, and I don't really care.  But you didn't live through those times, so you don't get to mock them.  They were very trying and hard times and they are personal.  Plus, you don't know the first thing about what any of us went through emotionally.  So lay off."

The five teenagers stared at the woman for a few minutes.  Then Brennan reluctantly nodded.  "Fair enough.  But how about backing off of us?  Sad to say, but our past is just as interesting, if not more so, than your all's.  You don't have the right to come down on us, either."

Dawn stepped aside and the adults regarded their children incredulously.  Buffy raised an eyebrow.  "Don't have the right?  _We_ have every right.  _We_ are your parents.  _We_ have done this for years.  _We_ know what _we_ are talking about."

Angel shook his head as he glared at the kids.  "The level of immaturity you have displayed this afternoon is the worst ever."

"I say this proves it," Xander muttered.  "They can't fight.  They aren't mature enough to handle this.  I say we call the Council and tell them we pulled the plug.  No more 'warrior' crap."

"I agree," Willow said coldly.  "They aren't ready."

Ciara's mouth opened wide as she stared at the group in disbelief.  She shook her head as the pieces of the puzzle fell into place.  "_That's_ what this is about.  You don't want us fighting.  Any excuse is good enough, eh?  I should've known."

"I thought you were behind us on this?" Marnee sighed miserably.  "I thought you said we could trust you?"

"Nah," Gavin snorted in disgust.  "This was the plan all along.  Find any fault, use it to forbid us from going out, no more Warriors, yadda yadda yadda.  I knew it!"

Buffy was about to say something but was cut off by Brennan's watch chime.  He looked down at it.  "Sunset."

"Let's go," Ciara grumbled.

"No!" Angel shouted as he took a step towards the teens.

Brennan turned and raised his eyebrows.  He spread his arms, indicating the entire group.  "What?  You think you can stop us?  I think we just proved how that would go."

Gavin smiled, pointing the sword that was still in his hands towards the adults.  "We can leave with you standing or we can leave with you on the ground.  Your choice."

Oz looked the group over with hard eyes.  "Just go."

Jake sighed and turned.  "We'll be out late."

Marnee looked back at the still angry group of adults.  She shifted nervously.  "We might all crash at Jake's, so don't wait up."

The Author Once Again 

****

And with this chapter, I start fearing for my life.  

Before the inevitable flaming begins, let me explain myself.  

Yes, the kids are stronger than the parents _right now_.  This does not mean that they are better than the Scoobies were at their peak.  Doesn't mean they're worse.  Just means they're about twenty years younger and in better shape since they've been training non-stop for the past three years.

Yes, they were little bastards in this chapter.  I whole-heartedly agree.  Sad to say, they inherited short tempers along with special powers.  Actually, tension has just kept building and building and they're hormonal time bombs that just couldn't suppress their anger any longer.  Plus, think of how defensive you get when your parents criticize you.  Especially on something that is suppose to be your forte.

And, whether you agree with me or not, the parents overstepped their bounds.  They were _overly_ critical.  The reasons for it come out later.  It's mainly just a _oh, shit, they can really do this, I don't want my kids to die_ response.  They were just asking for trouble.

Don't give me the whole "but they wouldn't freak out like that" response.  Yes, they would.  How long did it take Buffy to get over Dawn-protectiveness and let her do her own thing?  Something like two years?  And that was just her sister (I know, I say _just sister_ like sisters don't mean anything.  I have a younger sister and I chase twelve-year-old little boys around with a broom when they look at her crossways.  I'm one to talk.).  I think she would be even more freaked out if it was her son and daughter.  Not to mention the hotheadedness that is Angel and Xander.  Plus, Willow's temper when she gets _really _angry?  Not that this in any way justifies the below the belt hits that the kids land.  It's wrong, crosses the line, and they _know_ it crossed the line.  But they're stupid, don't have any clue as to what really went on in those situations, and were looking to defend themselves in any way they could.  It was easiest and the most hurtful they had on hand, and human nature dictates that they would do that.  You've done it.  I've done it.  Not that I'm proud.

Give it a chance.  The kids will get theirs comeuppance for it.  And they will regret the day they asked Spike any kind of questions.  It's almost sad they have to learn humility the way they do, but there you go.  You never know what you have till it's gone.

}ϊ{ Flutterby


	18. Chapter Sixteen

**Disclaimer:  Not mine.  Except the kids.  And after their outburst last chapter, who would really want them?**

"Wakey, wakey!"  Brennan groaned as he felt something hard and a bit sharp poke into his side.  He flopped over on the floor and reflexively shot out his arm in search of his pillow.  

"Hey, ouch!"  Brennan opened his eyes to see Marnee sliding away from him, a cradling hand on her cheek.  She narrowed her eyes at him.  "You hit me!"

Brennan smiled lazily as he stretched his arms over his head.  He now realized that instead of his own bed, he was on a sleeping bag in the middle of Jake's floor.  True to their word, the teens stayed over at Jake's dorm room instead of going to their homes.  None of them felt overly anxious to see their parents after the events of the previous day.  He yawned loudly as he looked around to see the other four teens were wide-awake.  "Sorry, Marn.  What time is it?"

"After ten," Marnee answered gesturing at the clock on Jake's nightstand.  She smirked at him, flipping her sleep-tousled hair over her shoulder.  "And you better watch it, mister.  Someday I'll get you back for that."

"I'll be sure to stay on my guard," Brennan replied dryly.  A moment later he stiffened and glanced back at the clock.  "Ten twenty-eight!  What about school?"

Ciara, who was sitting on the bed of Jake's single dorm room, looked at him as if he had gone nuts.  "School?  Well, since Marn and I were the only people lucid in time to even think about making school, we put it to a vote.  It was the unanimous decision that we just skip and take in some much-needed relaxing."

"Gavin's not really complaining and I decided to rain check my early morning study group," Jake smiled.  He reached over on the bed between him and Ciara.  A moment later, he tossed Brennan a box of pop-tarts.  

Brennan took a pop-tart put of the box and stripped it of its foil wrapping.  "But if we skip school, the 'rents will get even more uptight and oh my god I didn't just say that."

"You really did," Gavin muttered as he stole the unwrapped pop-tart from his friend.  He swallowed it in three bites then smiled and held up several DVD cases.  "Okay, movie marathon.  What should we go with?  New stuff or classics?"

"Classics," Marnee answered immediately.  She grabbed a pillow off Jake's bed and arranged it between her and the wall.  "What do you think we should do about the parents?"

"I don't want to think about it," Gavin grumbled.  "Okay, the highlights of Master Jacob's twentieth century cinema collection.  We got _The Lord of the Rings Trilogy_, _Saving Silverman_, _The Godfather_, _Monty Python and the Holy Grail_, _Dogma_, _Shrek_, _Mallrats_, and…_The Princess Bride_?  Jake, what in god's name is this?"

Jake swallowed a mouthful of pop-tart and grinned excitedly.  "Oh, that's one that Charlie sent down.  He said it's not what it sounds like."

"'_A classic tale of true love conquering all_,'" Gavin read from the cover.  He looked at Jake doubtfully.  "It looks as if this is going to be exactly what it sounds like."

Brennan chuckled at the boy's disgusted expression.  "Oh, come on Gav.  Charlie's never steered us wrong."

"Except the million times he has," Ciara pointed out.  "Let's not forget the whole _Crocodile Hunter_ incident."

"But Charlie was the one that discovered the View Askew movies," Marnee reminded the group.  "I think we should give him the benefit of the doubt."

Gavin looked around at the smiling faces of his friends.  His family.  He laughed and nodded.  "Oh, all right.  I'm game."

He popped the disc out of its case and handed it to Marnee.  She flipped on the old TV that Jake had sitting on the nightstand then pressed the button that activated the tray of the built-in DVD player.  Jake reached under his bed and took out the box of candy and snacks that he kept hidden.  He passed the box around and the group settled back as the movie began.

Several "hello-my-name-is-Inigo-Montoya's" and "as-you-wishes" later, Brennan grinned.  "So, all in favor of declaring Charlie redeemed, raise your right hand."

All five teens raised their hands high in the air.  Gavin's face actually hurt from laughing so much.  "Geez, Jake, that was great!"

"Yeah."  Marnee glanced at the clock.  "Guys, it's nearly noon."

Ciara looked up, a Twizzler hanging from her mouth.  "Your point being?"

"We have to go home sooner or later," Marnee replied quietly.  

"Yes, we do."  Gavin nodded his agreement.  "And I vote much, much later."

Brennan sighed, then bent over to pick up his shoes from the floor.  He sat back up and began the task of shoving them onto his feet.  "Marnee's right.  We can't put it off.  You know they're all home."

"Probably sick with worry," Ciara mocked in a high voice.  

"Come on," Jake gestured towards the door as he slipped into his sandals.  "I'll drive you.

Very reluctantly, they all began to grab what they had brought over.  Gavin, who had only brought the clothes he had on his back and the toothbrush he always kept on himself in case of emergencies, somehow found a way to take over forty-five minutes to find said toothbrush.  Then, Ciara had insisted they all help Jake clean the mess they had left in their wake.  By three in the afternoon, the small dorm room was spotless and they were out of excuses to not return to their homes.  They left the dorm, piled into Jake's van, and started for home.  

Jake took the long way around and pulled up in front of the Angel residence fifteen minutes later.  "All little Angels out please.  Next stop the famous Harris mansion."

Gavin made a face as he looked out the window and down the street.  "I don't think we'll be needing that connecting flight, Jake."

Jake looked out the front of the car and towards the vicinity Gavin was glaring at with a sick expression.  Parked between Angel's old Plymouth and Buffy's minivan, he could see Xander and Anya's station wagon.  Parallel parked a few yards down the road sat Willow's Volkswagen Beetle and the SUV that Wesley always drove down from Los Angeles.

"Oh, god," Marnee moaned from behind her brother.  "They're all here."

"Undoubtedly gearing up for the big come down," Brennan muttered angrily as he swung himself out of the van.  "It couldn't just be a fun parent-child battle.  No, with our family it has to be a group massacre."

"So, who's up for making like the people of Rohan and heading to Helm's Deep?"  Gavin's small smile vanished when his friends didn't even turn to roll their eyes at his joke.  "Right, then.  Onward to our doom."

Dreading the inevitable group confrontation, the teens stumbled out of the van and started up the walk.  Brennan, who was at the front of the plodding group, paused at the door.  He closed his eyes, trying to mentally prepare himself for the battle, and took a breath.  Once he felt ready he reached for the knob.  The eighteen-year-old was so worked up that he barely registered the door was already slightly ajar.  Brennan pushed the door open.  "Okay, we decided to be the bigger people and…" 

Brennan froze after taking one step inside the house.  The group behind him almost tripped over each other, then came to an abrupt halt as well.  All five stopped breathing, chills running alternately through each of them.

The front hall was in shambles.  All five of the teens looked over the ruins of the front of the Angel home.  On the side of the wall closest to the living room, a large hole ran through the drywall.  Pieces of plaster hung from the top edge, threatening to crumble if disturbed by the slightest movement.  The doormat that had lied before the front door for as long as any of them could remember was soiled and torn, flung aside as if trash.  The small table that had rested against the wall towards the stairs was flipped on its side.  The lamp, Los Angeles snow globe, and picture of the Angel children were strewn around the hall floor in pieces.  The family portrait that had hung proudly on the wall had been knocked off and thrown onto the stairs.

The five young adults gazed at the wreckage, willing their worst nightmare not be true.  After a moment, Gavin slowly pushed his way through the group and took a few steps inside.  "Mom?" he called out tentatively.  "Dad?  Aunt Buffy?  Aunt Willow?  Anyone?"

Ciara closed her eyes and held her breath, praying for an answer.  The only reply was the soul-chilling silence.  The girl inhaled unsteadily as she trembled.  "Mommy?" 

Jake bit his lip and struggled to control his emotions.  He grabbed his sister's quivering hand.  "Oh my god."

"Where are they?" Marnee whispered as she squeezed Jake's hand.

"Oh god," Brennan choked.  "Jenny.  David.  The twins.  J.R."

Without hesitation, Brennan and Marnee dashed upstairs while Gavin, Ciara, and Jake made their way through the remains of the main floor.  Gavin and Ciara took off through the dining room.  It appeared to be more or less intact, besides the overturned table, so they ran into the kitchen.  The kitchen was more than a bit disordered.  Pots and pans had been thrown around and their contents were splashed onto the walls and floors of the room.  But the kitchen was uninhabited.

"Oh, no."  Ciara felt her heart start to pound in panic.  She swayed, but was quickly grabbed from behind by Gavin.  She gazed up at her friend, tears streaming down her cheeks.  

Gavin stared back at her with frightened eyes.  "No worries.  They're fighters, remember?  They can take care of themselves."

Ciara shook her head, losing the fierce struggle to hide her tears.  She threw her arms around the tall frame of her friend and buried her head in his chest.  "I can't lose them, Gavin.  Not now.  Not ever.  _Not_ like this!  Not after what we said to them..."

"Ciara!  Gavin!"  The pair's attention shot to the arch that led to the living room as they heard Jake give a muffled shout.  They stood frozen in the kitchen, hoping against hope.  After a few agonizing seconds, Jake cried out.  "Guys!  In the living room!"

Ciara and Gavin sprinted into the living room.  The large den had been completely decimated.  All the furniture had been flung around the room.  Glass was everywhere.  Everything was either broken or out of place.  Jake was struggling from behind the overturned couch, half-cradling, half-dragging the form of Cordelia.  He carried her around the couch and placed her gently on the floor, carefully avoiding the shards of glass that littered the floor.  "It looks like Cordy, Gunn, Fred, Wes, and Dawn are here."

Ciara and Gavin rushed over and began helping Jake separate the limp bodies from where they lay behind the sofa entangled in a pile.  It took them a few moments, but the three soon had their aunts and uncles separated and lying on the floor on their backs.  Jake leaned over Wesley and began to check him over.  Ciara watched him anxiously from where she was crouched over Dawn.  "They're…are they alive?"

Jake dropped Dawn's wrist and quickly checked the others.  "They all have a strong pulse.  Other than each of them having a really nasty looking bump on their head, they don't look injured.  Its just…there's no way I can be sure."

"Oh, be sure."  They all turned to see Marnee and Brennan walk in the room.  In Brennan's arms, Doyle clung to him terrified.  Liam held tightly onto his leg.  Marnee carried J.R. in her arms.  Jenny and David huddled behind their older cousins, frightened.

"Ciara!"  Liam released Brennan's leg and scrambled for his sister.  

"Oh, god, Liam!"  Ciara began to silently cry again out of joy as she picked the four-year-old up and hung on to him fiercely.  He wrapped his small arms around her and began to cry into her shoulder.  Ciara breathed in and out shakily as the relief washed through her.

"J.R., Jennifer!" Gavin ran to the group and grabbed J.R. out of Marnee's arms.  Jenny launched herself at the pair and they held each other firmly.  Gavin breathed in the smell of his sister's coconut shampoo, trying hard to convince himself that she was really there.  "Thank heavens.  Are you okay?"

Jenny nodded as she squeezed her older brother.  "I was so scared."

Jake crossed the room easily and threw an arm around his brother pulling the younger boy against him.  The other arm sought out Marnee and the trio held each other in a group hug.  Jake closed his eyes as the fear that had seized his system was lessened.  He looked to the ceiling whispering a prayer to the Powers of their world.  "Thank you."

Ciara watched the older boy pray his thanks with a smile.  Jake lowered his eyes and caught her staring.  His gaze shifted from her to the small boy in her arms and smiled widely.  "You okay, Liam?"

"He's just fine, aren't you little man?" Ciara bounced the boy on her hip.  She glanced at David and nodded in his direction.  "How about you, Davey?  Are you okay?"

"Peachy," David mumbled as his grip on his brother tightened.

Brennan approached the mound of bodies, careful to keep Doyle from seeing their still family members. He looked at Ciara and motioned with his head to the unconscious adults on the floor.  "Are they okay?"

"We think so," Ciara answered as she gently stroked Liam's hair.

"Marn and I found these guys in Mom and Dad's closet upstairs," Brennan smiled down at his brothers.  "They heard the whole thing.  Jenny said there was a loud crash.  She started down the stairs to see if everything was okay when she saw, and I quote, 'monsters.'  She went back upstairs and made the others hide while she watched."

Jenny shakily stepped out of her brother's embrace and took a few steps towards her aunts and uncles.  She stopped short as a shudder ran through her and turned to face the older teens.  "Those…things…it sounded like they did something to some of the adults.  There was a lot of shouting.  I couldn't make out any words.  Then I watched them take Mom and Dad and some of the others away.  They looked scared and h…hurt."

Jake released his family and looked the shaking fourteen-year-old over.  He shot her a sympathetic look as he pulled David tighter against him.  "Take who?"

"Ah…well, Mom and Dad, and Aunt Buffy, Uncle Angel, Aunt Willow, and Uncle Oz," Jenny mumbled.  "Uncle Oz saw me.  He sorta signaled me to get back.  I got David and we both grabbed the twins and J.R. before locking ourselves in the closet."

Gavin shifted the baby into one arm and placed his free hand on his sister's shoulder.  "You did the right thing."

"Did I?" Jenny asked tearfully.  The fourteen-year-old shook her head as she gazed up at her brother.  "I should've done something.  They were screaming and…Dad looked knocked out.  Aunt Buffy had a great big scrape over her eyebrow.  She was bleeding.  They carried Uncle Angel and had to drag Aunt Willow out by her hair.  It was wrong!  It all felt so wrong!"

"Shh, Jen," Marnee murmured soothingly as she placed a supportive hand on Jenny's arm, trying her best to send the girl calming energy.  "You did right.  The kids are safe.  Are you sure you didn't hear or see anything else?"

"Um," Jenny closed her eyes in deep concentration.  "Aunt Buffy.  She said something like 'stay the hell away from my children, Gummie!'"

The five older teens looked at each other.  Gavin tightened his grip on Jenny's shoulder.  "You're sure.  She said Gummie."

Jenny nodded.  Ciara looked to her friends.  "Tonight's the new moon."

"Shit!" Gavin shouted.  He released Jenny and started to look around the room, desperate to prove his sister wrong.

"No!" Marnee whispered, raising a hand to her mouth.  "Oh, god, no.  The Gummie.  It only took _our_ parents.  No one else.  Just _our_ parents."

Brennan cursed loudly and looked away.  "That's why this happened.  To keep us from interfering."

"Yeah, well, it's working," Jake muttered.  He released his siblings and walked to the fireplace.  He grabbed the mantle and leaned against it.  "We can't let it win."

Marnee froze.  The redhead slowly turned then regarded her brother in shock.  "You don't mean what I think you mean, do you?  You would sacrifice our parents?"

"It's the Hellmouth, Marnee!" Jake snapped at her.  He breathed heavily as a dozen painful emotions coursed through him.  "It opens and they all die anyway!"

"You cannot be serious!" Marnee screeched as she also released David.  She thrust a finger at Jake as hot tears began to stream down her face.  "Listen to what you're saying!"

Jake forcibly choked back his own tears.  "I know what I'm saying.  I love them all, Marnee, but it's the only way."

"No, Jake!" Gavin shouted as he stepped between the arguing brother and sister.  He handed the baby off to Jenny and faced the older boy.  "I can't do it, man.  I can't let my parents die!  I can't stand by and watch any of them die!"

"Gavin."  Ciara looked at them all as tears spilled from her eyes.  "He's right.  Look at your sister.  Look at your brother.  Then tell me you can't."

Gavin looked at the alarmed expression on his sister's innocent face.  Jenny stared at the group as the baby in her arms began to wail.  Gavin shook his head and collapsed to the floor.  He stared off into space.  "If we go, we'll stop the Hellmouth from opening.  When that happens, the Gummie will take revenge on us in the only way it can.  We can't close the Hellmouth, fight the demon army, kill the Gummie, and save them all at once."  He raised his gaze to his friends, his eyes looking completely defeated.  "They're going to die."

Jake sat down beside him and put a comforting arm around his friend as the harsh reality set in.  "We know, Gav."

"Damn it!" Brennan kicked the coffee table as hard as he could.  It flew back against the wall and split in two.  

"This can't be happening," Marnee whispered as she crumpled to the floor

"Well, it is."  They all turned and watched as Wesley sat up.  The Watcher put his hand to his head, as if fighting back a really aggravating headache.  He sat still for a moment as he adjusted to the new position, then turned to give the teens a hard look.  "You have a decision to make.  It isn't right and it isn't fair.  It just is."

Brennan looked into the older man's eyes.  Then he shook his head.  "No.  We won't have to make that decision.  We can save them _and_ keep the Hellmouth from being opened.  We are the Warriors."

"Brennan," Wesley said, his eyes full of hope while his face creased with worry.  "I think you can do it.  But you must be prepared for the worst."

Ciara looked at Brennan, then put Liam on the ground.  She quickly turned and started upstairs.  "It won't come to that!"           

Moments later, Ciara reappeared wearing her black stretch pants and a blue tank top.  She threw the large trunk she carried with her onto the floor and opened it.  She immediately grabbed for her favorite weapon lying in its groove in the chest lid.  She smiled as she ran her thumb along the sharp edge of the oriental knife.  Ciara also claimed her stake belt and a large Norse hurling axe.  

Brennan let Doyle slide to the floor and walked over to the weapons chest.  After a moment of contemplation, he leaned down and grabbed his wooden knife, his own belt of stakes, and an old Celtic broadsword.  He flipped the sword over in his hand, testing its weight and maneuvering capabilities.  "I can work this.  Jake!"

Jake gave a stiff nod then disappeared out the door.  He returned with his, Marnee's, and Gavin's duffel bags.  He tossed the other two's bags to them as he dumped the contents of his onto the ground.  Marnee tore into her own bag.  She ignored her belt of normal magical supplies and retrieved a small backpack filled with basic and more advanced spell components.  She then loaded and strapped a Smith and Weston to each hip.  

Jake kicked his sandals off and pulled his spare pair of sneakers out of his bag.  After pulling them on, he shifted the piled knives and stakes that lay on the ground until he recovered his beloved crossbow.  He swiftly loaded it and threw it over his shoulder before turning his attention to a hefty Scottish dirk.  

David watched his brother and sister with growing horror.  After Jake sheathed the dirk and strapped it onto his stake belt, David grabbed his arm.  "What do you think you are doing?"

"Stand back, David," Marnee told the boy as she grabbed a few spare stakes from the ground and shoved them into the waistband of her jeans.  

"No!" David shouted as he looked at all of the older teens frantically.  "Listen, I know you all get into some fights and all, but this is serious.  You're going to get hurt."

"David's right," Jenny said as she watched her friends prepare for battle.  "This is too big for you!  Plus, something very weird is going on here!"

"And can we please remember the little talk we had the other day?"  David grabbed Jake's arm and looked up into his eyes.  "Please, Jake."

Jake smiled at his younger brother and playfully ruffled the boy's short, messy hair.  David sighed and turned away, angry and upset.

Gavin watched the scene with a sad smile before turning his attention to the pile of weapons.  A few moments later, he hoisted his favorite axe into the air.  Brennan shook his head at his friend.  "Gav, that's not enough.  This was supposed to be your Christmas present from Ciara and me, but under the circumstances…"

Brennan grinned bitterly and tossed a simple wooden longbow and a large quiver of arrows to Gavin.  Gavin looked the bow over admiringly, then strapped it and the arrows to his back.  "Thanks, guys.  I've been looking for one since that Gracksaw broke my old one in half."

"Brennan!" Liam cried out in a small voice.  He watched as his older brother put the sword down and knelt.  The small child hesitated, then ran into Brennan's outstretched arms.  "Don't leave!"

Ciara crouched down beside Doyle as the boy sat down on the floor and began to cry.  "Shh.  It's okay.  Everything is going to be all right."

Brennan gave Liam's shoulder a light squeeze.  "Sis and I are going to go with Jake, Marn, and Gavin  to find Mommy, Daddy, and the others.  We need you to stay here and be good boys.  Can you do that?"

"No!" Jenny sobbed desperately.  "Please, don't do this!  We…we…we'll call the police!  They can handle everything."

Gavin pulled Jenny into a hug, then kissed her on the forehead.  "We'll bring them back, Jen.  I promise."

Jenny dissolved into tears.  Gavin looked to Wesley.  "You'll take care of them, right?"

"Of course," Wesley replied solemnly.  He gestured behind him, where Dawn and Gunn were already beginning to stir.  "We will guard them with our lives."

"Right, then," Marnee said determined.  She gave her family one last look, then started for the door.  "To the Hellmouth."


	19. Chapter Seventeen

**Disclaimer:  I wish.  Read the Author's Notes.**

Sunnydale High School, 1999.  In the middle of the graduation ceremony there had been an attack blamed by most people on a small gang that had its roots in LA.  The school had blown up during the Mayor's commencement address.  The explosion had claimed the lives of the Mayor, the Principal, as well as dozens of students, faculty, and guests.  At least that was the story told.

As Jake stood before the restored high school that he had attended and his friends now attended, he couldn't help but think about it.  That year, 1999, had been the year that his parents, aunts, and uncle had graduated.  Taking account of their extracurricular activities, the whole explosion thing could have been a cover up for something more Hellmouthy.  

"So," Marnee murmured as they all stood riveted before the school.  "This is it."

"Yeah, this is it," Ciara echoed, trying hard to keep her voice steady.  Sunnydale High School was the bane of her existence during the day when she actually attended classes there.  But at night, it was the setting of her worst nightmares.  The Hellmouth opened in the large auditorium.  Ciara gulped as images of her parents and loved ones being held captive in that dark arena flooded her mind.

Brennan entertained similar thoughts for a few moments, then pushed his emotions aside.  "Remember.  Our first priority is to stop the Gummie.  If it comes to choosing between keeping the Hellmouth closed and…other things, we keep the Hellmouth closed."

"Can I just be the first to say that this is a really bad plan?" Gavin grumbled as he absentmindedly fingered the string of his new longbow.  Marnee rolled her eyes as she passed a sheet of paper to him.  

"You already said that," Ciara muttered as she studied her own copy of what Marnee had just handed to Gavin.  "Marnee, I can't read this!"

Marnee sighed and pointed to the strange words on Ciara's paper.  "That's because it isn't English, Ciara."

"What the hell is it?" Gavin asked eyeing his own copy of the chant.  

"Russian," Marnee answered with a shrug.  "Roughly translated it reads, 'stop the opening of the mouth of hell.'  It will completely reverse any progress made by the Gummie."

The pair looked up at her wide-eyed.  Gavin coughed.  "_Russian_?  I barely speak American.  Plus, there aren't any real letters!  How am I supposed to pronounce it?"

"For the love of god," Jake muttered under his breath.  He took out his own copy of the spell and pointed at it.  The older teen spent the next ten minutes carefully explaining how to pronounce the Russian spell to the pair of teens.

For a moment, Brennan watched his sister try to absorb the older redhead's words, then turned to the person on his left and raised an eyebrow.  "You understand what we need from you?"

He nodded.  "Yeah.  I'll handle it."

"Just sound it out!" Marnee yelled, frustrated with her friends.  Ciara and Gavin glared at the redhead furiously.

"Guys, a little focus, please," Brennan snapped at them.  All four straightened and nodded.  Brennan sighed.  "Okay.  Let's do this."

A Word from the Author

Yes the Hellmouth is in the auditorium.  When I first conceived this fic, it was still summer and I had no bloody clue where the Hellmouth was supposed to be.  I didn't even know if there was going to be a Sunnydale High School.  We (as in me and my friend Crescondo) went through a lot of possibilities.  A Wal-Mart.  Bookstore.  Coffee Shop.  Something called the Fuzzy Duck.  Finally, it was decided that I would just rebuild the high school in my world and have the Hellmouth in the school auditorium.  Then Lessons aired and I almost cried.  But then the season was kick ass, so I really didn't care.  But I wasn't about to re-write the end (I always write the end of something before I write the rest of it…I know I'm weird) so I decided to just leave the Hellmouth in the auditorium.  It works better for me in this fic and will be crucial to the next.  So learn to deal.

And here we are, the climactic battle up next…(dun dun dun)

}ϊ{  Flutterby


	20. Chapter Eighteen

**Disclaimer:  See Author's Notes.**

Angel shifted his weight for the hundredth time in the red cushioned seat in the front row of the auditorium.  His muscles had begun to cramp long ago from hours of being held in the same position.  He pulled again on the manacles that securely chained his arms to their respective armrests.  As before, they didn't even groan against the added pressure.  Instead of continuing the futile attempt of escaping his arm restraints, he once again tested the resilience of the shackles on his feet.  Both legs were wrapped tightly together, then secured by a separate length of heavy metal chain to a bolt that had been conveniently placed under the seat as part of a complicated rigging for special audience-involving drama effects.  The only relief he had had in the long hours since his capture was that, once he was secured in the seat and the bell signifying the end of the school day had rang, the gag had been removed.

Angel gave up on removing his bonds and turned his attention back to his wife.  Buffy sat to his right staring at the wall impassively.  She had sat that way, bound to the seat just like her husband, for well over an hour.  He couldn't get her to actively participate in any conversation and was beginning to worry, unable to do anything but watch as her once-brilliant eyes became darker and darker.  

Angel shifted his focus to the other adults tied to the other chairs in the row of seats.  On his left, Xander fidgeted almost annoyingly by moving his hips every few moments.  Every now and then, he would stop his constant stirring to mutter comforting words to Anya, who sat by his side.  The ex-demon looked surprisingly terrified as she watched the monsters in the room set about their various tasks.  The reason likely lay in the fact that she knew what they were going to attempt by the rituals performed and spell ingredients brought in.  Willow was beside Buffy, smiling softly as she and Oz whispered affectionately.  Angel knew instinctively what the pair was saying.  They were fondly remembering their lives and saying goodbye.  All six had resigned themselves to the fact that this would be their last night alive.  Either the Hellmouth would open and they would be the first treats for the demons that would begin to pour into the world or the teenagers would arrive in time to stop the Gummie, but would inadvertently have to sacrifice their own parents to do so.

Angel silently prayed for a third option.  Not that he was afraid to die.  He had existed for far more years than most beings on this planet were granted.  He was just concerned about the children they would all leave behind.  At best he knew that Ciara, Brennan, Gavin, Jake, and Marnee would survive the battle, but not without seeing their parents murdered before them.  Angel believed that he somewhat knew the minds of the five teenagers.  He knew that from that day until the end of time that they would blame themselves for their deaths, the nagging thought that they could have, should have done more forever in the back of the minds.  Angel knew from personal experience that living with the memory of one's parents' blood was almost unbearable.  But even though he knew this would happen, he also knew that the teens were strong, probably stronger than any of the Scoobies had been at their age.  Someday, Angel hoped that they would get on with their lives.  Maybe try and live normal ones.  He knew that Wesley, Cordelia, Fred, Dawn, Gunn, and even Spike would see that the all the children were provided for.  He just wished that circumstances had been different.  That the parents could be there to see their children live.

Angel looked up on the stage at the hoard of monsters as they scurried about finalizing their preparations.  The Gummie was an ugly, three-foot-tall creature with sallow, white skin.  On its forehead, a blue gem, a six-pointed star with two other beams jutting from the northernmost point, sparkled with light stolen from the auditorium lights.  The Gummies fingers were long and clawed, but appeared broken and mangled.  When the creature smiled, which was almost always since the conceited thing thought that the battle was over, it revealed four rows of small jagged teeth.  It had made itself comfortable on a ratty old mattress that a brown-nosing vampire had dug out of the drama club's storage room.  It relaxed while it barked out orders to the thirty or so vampires and demons that it had at its disposal.  The minions crowded around it, nearly fighting to be the one to serve its master.  Apart from vampires, Angel recognized several different types of demons, some very powerful creatures, serving the Gummie, including trolls, Lilliad demons, and hellhounds.

The demons stood towards the front and left of the stage, the point directly above the Hellmouth.  They were quickly building an altar around the point while several sages circled around it, chanting in a language that even Angel didn't know.  The altar was built from the bones of humans, presumably brought from the surrounding cemeteries since they all looked fresh, but clean.  The bonding agent used to seal them together was made from a magical concoction that Angel recognized as Poseidon's Snare.  It was made from the waters of all the seven ancient seas and the red clay from the bottom of the deepest ocean.

From the way the demons were beginning to pick up the pace, Angel could tell it was after sunset.  The Gummie now had until sunrise to complete its ritual.  Suddenly, the Gummie rose from its seat and took a place before the altar.  It produced a scroll out of the air and began to chant from it.  Angel could feel the air around him begin to thicken with dark magic.  He leaned over to Xander.  "This is it," Angel whispered into the man's ear.  "After all this time, the Hellmouth is going to open."

Xander glanced over at Angel.  "Maybe."  Xander flicked his eyes skywards and smiled at something above them.  "Maybe not."

Angel glanced up.  His mouth went dry as he beheld the greatest sight he thought he had ever seen.  Making their way along the winding metal rafters, Angel could make out four dark forms.  Gavin, Ciara, Jake, and Marnee silently slithered their way through the twisted metal bars that curled high above the auditorium.  Angel watched as Marnee positioned herself directly above the Hellmouth while the other three crept into place in the form of a triangle that enclosed the redheaded witch.  Jake took the northern point toward the opposite end of the stage.  Gavin set himself up to Marnee's southwest, near the back of the stage.  Ciara arranged herself to Marnee's southeast.  Angel gazed at the small kicking feet that swung around in bored random patterns directly above him.  

Angel watched his daughter sit above him for as long as he dared.  He returned his gaze to the floor to prevent calling any attention to the teens.  He glanced to his left to see that Xander was doing the same thing while Anya's eyes darted around the room then back up almost in a rhythm.  Angel looked to his right.  The other three adults seemed oblivious to what was happening.  

"Buffy," Angel whispered to his wife.  Buffy didn't even acknowledge him.  Angel bit his lip, then looked beyond the stoic blonde.  "Willow."  The redhead glanced over at him, instantly trying to give him a small, reassuring smile.  He motioned for her to look up.  She did.  Oz, who noticed his wife's actions, did the same.  The pair immediately cast their eyes down.  Buffy, whose curiosity was sparked by the exchange, also looked heavenward, only to bring her gaze back down.  The three adults tried to keep their passive expressions, but Angel could see each pair of eyes begin to twinkle with a light that had been dead just moments before.

Angel sat with his eyes glued to the floor for what seemed like hours.  In reality, the ex-vampire knew it didn't take that long.  It was probably minutes.  But he knew deep down that when he heard the loud snap of a crossbow bolt being fired, his heart leapt for joy.

The arrow sped like lightening toward its target, but a chanting sage was faster.  It leapt between the arrow and the Gummie, suffering the deadly hit for its master.

Brennan stood at attention just inside the front door at the back of the auditorium.  Ever so slowly, he lowered the crossbow.  "Excuse me, but I think I've lost my parents.  Do you know the way to the lost and found?"  

"Varrior!"  The Gummie glared at the boy furiously.  He motioned to the several of the demons on his right.  "Get 'im!"

Brennan smiled as at least nine vampires and seven demons rushed him.  Right when Angel feared he was going to see his son torn to pieces before him, Brennan vanished into thin air.  The monsters stopped their attack and looked around ignorantly.  One male vampire scratched his head in a move that showed his fledgling stupidity.  "Where'd he go?"

"Mini-Poof's not in right now.  I'll take your messages."  Spike appeared in the doorway, taking four vampires out before they even had time to react.  The other demons and vampires roared as Spike turned and fled out the door.  The monsters grinned and nearly a dozen of them ran out the door to give chase, considerably narrowing the amount left to aid their master.

In the span of that confused moment, ropes fell from the ceiling and the four other Warriors dropped to the floor, except for Marnee, who stopped and dangled ten feet above the Hellmouth.          Marnee threw a handful of a powdery substance onto the altar and closed her eyes.  The four teens chanted in unison.

The altar shimmered.  A moment later, the glow died down, but the damage was done.  The Gummie roared and grabbed for the rope.  Marnee yelped and scrambled back up towards the sanctuary of the ceiling.  Once she was safe on the metal beams, she cut the rope from its base.  The few demons that had been stupid enough to follow her fell several feet to the hard floor.

Ciara landed on her feet in front of the adults and Brennan reappeared beside her.  "Hey guys!  Miss us?"

The adults rolled their eyes at the pair.  Any trace of happiness and relief in the brother and sister's expressions faded fast.  They both gave the adults an angry and annoyed look, then began to pull at the chains.  After a few moments, they were able to free Buffy.  

The retired Slayer shot out of the seat.  Rubbing her reddened wrists, she turned and faced her children.  "Don't worry about us.  Go, make sure the Gummie doesn't open the Hellmouth."

"Marnee's on top of it," Brennan mumbled to his mother as he grabbed one side of Willow's bonds.

Willow looked up confused as the chain that secured her feet snapped under the pull of the brother and sister.  "What did Marnee do?"

"A spell," Ciara grunted and rolled her eyes as she started to work on Willow's arm chains.  "Mom, watch my back so Brennan can go help the boys!"

Buffy looked to the stage to see Gavin and Jake trying to fend off nearly twenty demons and vampires.  Buffy could see that it was a battle they would soon lose by themselves.  She grabbed the large hurling axe from her daughter's hand and nodded to Brennan.  "Go!"

Brennan pulled his sword from its sheath on his back and ran from the group of bound adults.  He leapt over the obstructing chair and jumped headlong into the fray.  He soon made it to where Gavin and Jake were working together.  He took Gavin's place at Jake's side and the younger boy dropped his own axe and withdrew his longbow.  He set up just behind the boys and started to easily pick off vamps and the frailer types of demons.

Buffy blocked an attack from a demon as Ciara snapped the chain around Willow's arms.  A moment later, Marnee appeared beside her mother, holding out her hand.  "Help me, Mom?"

Willow nodded and the two witches disappeared once more.  Anya raised an eyebrow.  "Wow, Marnee is really powerful.  It takes an extraordinary amount of power to teleport oneself, not to mention a tag along."

"Yeah, well, she tries," Ciara grumbled as she started to work on her father's chains.  "But if she sticks to the plan, then she should be done with the magic for now."

"What's the plan?" Oz asked the blonde.

It sounded as if three small explosions resounded through the auditorium.  Three demons that had been advancing on the trio of boys fell to the ground.  Marnee smiled from her perch in the rafters and trained her guns for new targets.  Behind her, Willow stood, her eyes closed as she chanted.  Willow's hand was resting firmly on Marnee's shoulders and it was evident that Marnee was drawing on her mother's power to protect her friends and direct her fire.

"That's the plan."  Ciara put all her strength into the chains that bound her father's arms.  They didn't even bend.  Her grip slid a bit and she cried out as a mangled link sliced into her left hand.  She cursed and dropped the chains.  "Damn it!  I can't believe you guys got yourselves kidnapped!"

"Well," Anya smiled awkwardly while she chewed meekly on her lip.  "We didn't mean to."

Ciara clenched her fist to slow the bleeding, but the blood only began to trickle between her fingers.  The vampires nearest to the rear of the group fighting the boys turned and sniffed the air.  Ciara groaned as they smiled, realizing that the adults were mostly still constrained to their seats, easy targets.

Ciara tore a piece of cloth from her shirt and quickly wound it around her hand.  She grabbed the axe from her mother and stepped in front of the adults.  "Mom, stay behind me."

Buffy grabbed for a stake from her daughter's waist.  "I can take care of myself."

"Mom!" Ciara yelled and shoved Buffy behind her.  "Get out of my way!"

Four vampires attacked Ciara simultaneously.  Ciara quickly slung her axe around taking out one vamp instantly, then fell into the familiar dance with the remaining three.  The three creatures would not have been a problem if four more just like them didn't rush to their aid.

Marnee watched as the seven vampires ganged up on her friend.  "No, Ciara!"

She looked over her shoulder at Willow.  The older redhead smiled and nodded.  "Go.  Help."

Marnee handed the guns behind her back to her mother, then jumped off the metal beam.  She flipped through the air, using her magics to slow her fall before she hit the ground.  She landed softly on her feet.  Marnee looked before her as she saw many of the demons flee from where the three boys were relentlessly taking them down one at a time.  There were only a few demons left for them to fight.  

Marnee turned to run to Ciara's aid, but caught a glimpse of something to her left.  The Gummie was back in place in front of its altar.  Its hands were raised high as it and the only remaining sage chanted.

Marnee abandoned all thoughts of Ciara as she ran down the aisle.  Somehow Brennan's wooden knife made its way into her hand as she jumped onto the stage.  She plunged the knife into the back of the sage.

Brennan leapt onto the stage beside her and smirked at the demon that now cowered before the two teens.  "So, Gummie.  No more sages.  How you going to open the Hellmouth now?"

The demon's look of terror melted away into a vicious smile as its clawed hands grabbed both teens by the throat.  "Like zis."

Brennan began to raise his hand to slap the demon away, but froze as he felt a small shock vibrate through his body.  When it vanished as soon as it had appeared, Brennan glanced at the Gummie.  The demon laughed hoarsely and Brennan grabbed the clawed hand that was roughly gripping his neck.  Brennan's eyes grew wide as the blue star-shaped gem embedded in the Gummie's forehead began to glow.  A moment later the Gummie's hand began to warm against the bare flesh of Brennan's neck.  The boy tried to wrench out of the demon's grip but was held in place by some force that he could not see.

Beside Brennan, Marnee cried out as the burning sensation spread from her flesh to the inside of her body.  From there, it seared through her, consuming every muscle, every bone, every nerve, every fiber of her being.  Almost paralyzed in the demon's painful grip, Marnee did the only thing she could think of.  She screamed.

"Marnee!"  Jake dropped the dirk in his hands and started to weave his way toward his sister and friend.  Steps from the foot of the stage, a vampire jumped in front of him.  Jake grabbed a wooden bolt from the side of the crossbow and shoved it into the vampire without a second thought.  He stood in place and stared up at the shrieking pair of teenagers on the stage.

Brennan prayed for the searing pain to stop.  After a moment, his prayer was granted.  The burning sensation flickered and disappeared.  Beside Brennan, Marnee breathed out a sigh of relief.  Before the breath had completely left her body, the burning was back, intensified as waves of what could only be described as electricity began to pull them into a black vacuum that formed in their minds.

"No!  Brennan!  Marnee!"  Gavin, Jake, Ciara, and the adults watched as haloes of light began to form around Brennan and Marnee.  Brennan was surrounded by a bright green glow while Marnee shimmered a pastel pink.  Gavin stared at them in horror as he reached behind his back and grabbed one of the few arrows he had left.  

Marnee felt a fresh and even fiercer surge of pain rip through her.  It gathered in her hand and Marnee shook hard as she felt something break off of her.  

What looked like a lightening bolt shot out of Marnee's hand.  Everyone and everything ducked as the lightening bolt flickered wildly throughout the room.  The Gummie smiled wider as it tightened its hold on both Marnee and Brennan.  The lightening bolt stopped its uncontrolled zipping throughout the room and began to weave a path through the chaos in the small auditorium.  

Gavin aimed the arrow at the demon and was about to release the string when the bolt of lightening hit him.  The taut string went limp.  Gavin clutched the bow and arrow in a vise-like grip and arched his back as the burning sensation hit him instantly, the air around him immediately beginning to shine bright yellow.  Unable to fall to the ground because of the force of the magic, Gavin bent back in an awkward position as he lost control of his body to the mind-warping pain.

Jake, who stood less than five feet away, watched as his friend lost himself in convulsions.  He started to reach for the boy, then hesitated, rethinking that course of action.  Jake took a small step back, beginning to slowly retreat from his friend.  In the middle of his third step another bolt of lightening sprang out of Gavin's hand, hitting Jake squarely in the stomach.

"Jake!  Oh god, what's happening?" Ciara watched as the air around Jake took on a reddish hue.  She started to tremble where she stood, dropping the vampire she had easily lifted from the ground just a few short moments before.  Ciara looked at her four friends, panicked, unsure of how to help them.  A moment later, the lightening had continued off of Jake, ensnaring her dark purple glow into the circle of colors.  The circle was completed when a bolt sizzled from her and latched onto Brennan, who stood frozen on the stage, his eyes scrunched close and his mouth open in a soundless scream.

The few remaining vampires and demons smiled and relaxed.  They stood, watching in amusement as the five teenagers that had been the bane of their existence for the past three years shuddered and screamed in agony.  

"No," Angel whispered, his eyes locked on the shaking form of his daughter.  

Ciara's head rolled back and through the clouds of pain in her eyes she saw Angel straining against his bonds.  Her voice, rough from her pleas to be released from the burning, whispered to him.  "Daddy…"

Xander's gaze darted from teenager to teenager frantically.  "Wh…what's happening?  Willow!  Someone!  What's wrong with them?"

"It's their auras," Anya answered, having to shout to be heard over the gush of magic and the violent sobs of the teenagers.  "It's their life-energy.  The Gummie…it's manipulating it.  That was the reason for the sages.  They were sacrifices to grant it access into the spirit world.  Since the kids killed the sages, the Gummie can manipulate their life-forces."

"We have to do something," Oz called to the others.

"NO! PLEASE!"  

Marnee began to howl as the pink glow around her began to fade in and out.  The vibrant swirls of color around each of the children began to pulse through the ring of magic energy.  Anya traced the flow of the colorful energy to the Gummie.  

"Yezzz!  Zee pow'er!"  The Gummie hissed in what sounded like pleasure as the colorful energies flowed into it.  It began to glow from within with the stolen colors of each of the teenagers' energy.  

If the children had been in agony before, then this was Hell.  The parents watched as their children writhed and wailed, almost suspended in mid-air.  Jake's head pounded as he felt all that he was begin to tear from him.  He tried to raise his hands to his head, but found that he couldn't feel them.  He couldn't feel anything but his sense of self-being ripped apart slowly.

"No…no, Ciara!" Buffy cried as she reached out to grab her daughter.  When Buffy's hand was still inches away, a small bolt shot off of Ciara's shoulder and shocked Buffy.  The force the tiny bolt created sent Buffy back a few feet and she crashed on top of Angel.  Buffy raised her hand up and stared at it.  It was red and swollen.  It shook of its own free will and Buffy closed her eyes to shield out the indescribable _pain_.  "Oh, god, Angel!  It's so painful.  Their life…it's being forced from them.  Burning…tearing.   Oh, god, it _hurts_!"

Angel watched his wife as she sobbed from the damage done by the small shock.  He then looked up at the children as the large bolts of magic lightening endlessly crackled over their shuddering forms.  Their screams were almost inhuman as the bolts pulsated and their auras flickered.  After mere moments, the shrieking gradually died as all five lost the strength to even cry out.  The parents could only watch as their children were drained…murdered in the most horrifying and painful way they could imagine.

"Help them!" Willow shouted from the rafters, near hysterics.

"We can't!" Xander replied in a ragged breath as he watched his son fall completely against the magical barrier.  "We can't help them!  We can't help them at all!"

_"We can't help them at all!"  _Xander's scream echoed through the pain-induced haze that surrounded his eldest son, coming to Gavin as a faint whisper.  The boy blinked open his eyes and squinted, making out the foggy outline of the man he trusted and loved so much.  He watched as his father reached out his shackled hand, straining to reach the boy, then Gavin closed his eyes.  _They can't fight…They aren't mature enough…Warrior…Gavin can't do this…We want to help…Warrior…Tell us the truth now…Who are you…Warrior…Please…It's all lies…Warrior…We're the Warriors…Dad…I just wish we could tell them…Warrior…End of the world…Not to worry…By the order of the Watcher's Council of Britain, in this highly unusual and unprecedented case, I, Bruce Howard, have been sent to serve and perform the duties of Watcher…Warrior…The Great Ones._

Gavin opened his eyes.  The Gummie laughed as it continued to feed off the teenagers' lives.  Amid the chaos and indescribable pain that surrounded him, Gavin slowly gathered the last bit of strength and will that remained in him and raised the longbow he still clutched in his hand.  He took quick aim and pulled back the string.  The string hummed loudly as the arrow sailed free.  Time slowed down as the arrow flew through the air.  Everyone it sang past turned to watch it.  What seemed like an eternity later, it hit its target.

The Gummie arched its back as it howled in pain.  In the moment of pain and confusion it dropped Marnee and Brennan, breaking the circle of magic that flowed from all five Warriors.  They collapsed to the ground as the auras and lightening vanished.

Jake hit the ground face down.  The nineteen-year-old curled into a ball as he gasped for the breath he never thought he'd have again.  The redhead lay perfectly still as the throbbing in his head and body lessened, but did not vanish.  He felt drained, barely able to move.

Gavin fell to his hands and knees, retching blood as his stomach churned.  The grown boy sobbed as the blood and bile kept burning its way up his throat.  After there was no more strength left to even vomit, he fell onto his side, desperately pleading for an escape from the relentless aching that traveled through his body.  

Ciara stared off into space as she lay on the hard cold auditorium floor.  She clenched her teeth and took in small pants of oxygen as she felt parts of her body twitch on the floor, residual spasms of pain and power racking her.  

Brennan and Marnee, whom the Gummie had been draining directly, lay on the stage floor, lacking the strength to even feel the pain that covered them in a thick haze.

The Gummie, still standing, reached for the arrow that protruded from its abdomen.  It wrapped its clawed hands around the arrow and slowly began to work it out of its stomach.  Once the arrow was free from its body, it raised the sliver of wood to its eyes and snarled when it saw the dark black blood covering it.  The demon tossed the arrow aside and began to reach for Brennan and Marnee once more.  The pair looked at the thing in terror and tried unsuccessfully to scoot out of its grasp.  It latched its fingers around the bare skin of Brennan's arm and Marnee's ankle, but then gasped as it felt a stabbing pain envelop its midsection.  The demon pulled back once more from its would-be victims and glared at the crossbow bolt that poked out of its side incredulously.

Jake drew in another breath as he slowly lowered the crossbow to the ground.  He sat on his knees and stared at the creature for a moment then leaned back and fell to the floor.

The Gummie spat out a mouthful of its blood as the black, sticky liquid started to seep up its throat.  It ignored the pain and reached out weakly to try and grab once more the pair in front of it.

Ciara rose to her knees as the thing crept for her brother and friend.  She grabbed her knife from its place in her belt and, taking quick aim, threw it deep into the creature's neck.  The Gummie made a sick gurgling sound before collapsing onto the ground.  It shook violently, then became very still.    

Brennan and Marnee breathed out sighs of relief.  Not wanting to be left out of the group kill, they both mustered up enough strength to give the corpse a swift kick.

The demons and vampires that remained in the room looked at each other.  They stood frozen on place as Buffy leapt off of Angel's lap and ran to the stage.  She grabbed the keys to the chains from their place on the side of the Gummie's mattress and tossed the jingling key ring to her husband.  Angel easily caught the keys and started to work on his shackles as Buffy knelt down on the floor between Marnee and Brennan.  Seconds later, Angel's chains fell to the floor with a clunk.  The others' bonds quickly followed rattling to the floor within moments.  Angel walked to the corpse of a Lilliad demon and pulled out Ciara's forgotten hurling axe.  He shifted it in his hands before turning his gaze to the small group of creatures that remained scattered about the room.  A moment later, he felt Xander, Oz, and Anya beside him, armed only with what they could find laying about, but with eyes blazing.  The vampires next to the door shared a few quick glances, then wordlessly turned and fled.  The other demons quickly followed suit.  

Xander let out the small breath he had been holding.  He dropped the club he had taken from a dead troll and raced across the room to Gavin's side, Anya close behind him.  He slid down into a sitting position at one side of the unconscious, but still shaking boy.  Anya sat on his other side.  Tentatively, she reached out and ran a hand along his brow.  Gavin whimpered at the touch.  Anya started to draw her hand away when the boy's eyes shot open.  He peered at his parents in a childlike manner, tears forming in his eyes.  "Is it over?  Let it be over."

Xander flinched at the sound of his son's haggard voice.  He forced a smile and nodded.  "It's over, Gavin.  It's over."

A few feet over, Oz stooped down beside Jake.  He put his hand on his eldest son's shoulder while the young man inhaled deep breaths of air.  "Good job, Jacob.  Good job."

On the stage, Buffy watched as Willow slid awkwardly down the rope from the rafters.  The moment she hit the floor, she ran to Buffy's side, sitting between Brennan and Marnee.  Both teens were already unconscious, settled into a deep innocent sleep.

Across the room, Angel crouched down beside Ciara.  He gazed at his daughter's battle-weary face.  She coughed for a moment and Angel gently stroked her hair until she was calm.  "Ciara.  Can you stand?"

Ciara looked up at her father with exhausted eyes.  She coughed a couple more times, then groaned.  "First, ask me if I can process a logical thought.  Then sometime next year, we'll discuss this standing thing."

Angel smiled.  If Ciara could make jokes, then she would be fine.  He continued to run his fingers through her hair like he had done when she was a baby.  "I'm so proud, my lamb.  You fought bravely and kept a level head.  You did better than any of us ever could have done."

Ciara closed her eyes and snorted.  "So now might be a good time to discuss a raise in my allowance?"  She grew serious as she comprehended what her father had said.  "You mean that?  You're proud?"

Angel watched as she fought for consciousness.  "I really mean it.  I couldn't be more proud." 

Ciara smiled broadly before she closed her eyes and let oblivion claim her.  


	21. Chapter Nineteen

**Disclaimer:  See Author's Notes.**

He stretched back on the large, comfortable couch situated in the middle of the room.  He let his gaze wander lazily over the white-stone walls of the palatial room, his eyes finally resting on the welcoming fire that blazed just across from him.  It was somewhere he had never been, a home he'd never stepped inside of, but it was always the meeting place between him and the strange people.  He rolled his head over, leaning deeper into the comforting lap he rested in and looked up into the familiar, smiling face of the blonde woman.  "This isn't over, is it?"

"No, my lamb.  It isn't."  The woman looked down at him tenderly, gently running a hand down the side of his face.

He smiled and leaned into the soothing touch of the motherly woman.  "You called me that again.  That's what Dad calls my sister."

"A family is as a family does," a dark-haired woman replied as she walked into the room.  She grinned almost evilly at him, but he knew that her enthusiasm was partly feigned.  Her dark eyes carried within them the scars of a haunted past.  As he knew it would, her smile faded and she sighed as she leaned against a smooth wall.  "Be wary, lil bro.  Everything is starting to fall into place.  You don't want to be caught in the shuffle."

The bizarre man sitting across from Brennan and the blonde woman snorted loudly and shifted in his seat.  He slouched over and ran a hand through his mussed hair.  "You t'ree and yer riddles.  Sometimes I wonder if it would be all dat world-t'reatenin' if we just came out and told the lad."

"You know better than any of us what that would lead to," a third woman said, not looking up from the book she seemed to be immersed in.  She sipped at the cup of tea in her hands, then glanced up at the confused boy.  She smiled warmly at him, her book falling into her lap.  "I would like to tell you more, but it isn't arranged that way.  We're allowed to give you guidance.  I wish we could be of more help.  I wish I could make things all right for you."

"He understands well enough, don't you, my boy?  My darling boy…" The blonde woman sighed and gazed at him with tears in her eyes.  "You have to make it better.  They've been brought into this now.  Take care of them."

The man looked around at them all and shook his head as he produced a flask from his pocket and greedily gulped down a strong smelling liquid.  "Time ta be off."

"Are you leaving already?" he asked, not wanting them to leave.  He felt deeply connected to these four figments of his imagination.  He delighted when he dreamed of them, loving the time they shared.

The third woman shook her head.  "No, child, we're always here."

"It's you that's got to get gone.  Places to go…people to see…worlds to save."  The woman leaning against the wall smiled at him wistfully before turning her attention to the wide archway that led to the beautiful garden outside.  "Days to live.  Especially now that you've involved them."

He followed her gaze and smiled at the scene before him.  Jenny, Charlie, David, Ricky, Diana, J.R., Doyle, and Liam laughed as they basked in the glow of the sun.  Jenny, Ricky, David, and Diana sat in a small circle playing a board game, Diana clearly excited as she rolled the dice.  Charlie sat in a corner not far from the small group, holding a giddy J.R. in his lap.  The baby squealed happily as he explored the not-quite-familiar face with his small hands.  Doyle and Liam were several feet away from the others, both curled into either side of a strange woman he had never seen.  The raven-haired woman looked up at him from the book she was reading and smiled as she wrapped her lace-enclosed arms around the small twins.

"Coming home, I am.  Coming home to Daddy.  And little sisters…and little brothers…to be a family…forever…"

Doyle and Liam giggled.

@@@~~~~@@@  Bonus points to whoever can guess who the blonde woman, the two dark-haired women, and the man are!!!


	22. Chapter Twenty: The Finale

**Disclaimer:  See Author's notes**

**By the way…the Dream People are as follows:  Jenny Calendar, Faith, Allen Francis Doyle, and Darla (her soul).  The freaky raven haired woman was Drusilla.**

Brennan yawned sleepily as the relentless giggles of the twins gently roused him from his happy dream world.  He grumbled incoherently, frustrated that he had been forced out of his dream so quickly.  He loved it when he had the dream of the four strange people.  He'd had his first dream with them some years ago.  At first, they had been casual visit-like dreams.  As a child, he had thought of the four strangers as his own personal imaginary friends.  After he was called, the friendly visits became more business like as the figments brought him news of dangers yet to come.  

Brennan yawned again and rolled over, reaching with his arm for his pillow.  He hit something very hard beside him.  He pushed against the mass and was rewarded by a swift strike to the face.  The heavy and warm object that had hit him rested on his face.  Brennan, fully awake, slowly opened his left eye.  Marnee lay sprawled out on the bed beside him.  Surprised and a bit panicked at the strange circumstances, Brennan quickly rose to a sitting position…and immediately fell back onto the bed as his aching body reminded him of the previous nights events.

"Oh, my…everything," Brennan moaned as he brutally fought the urge to regurgitate.  He shut his eyes and weakly brought his hands to his face.

Across the room, someone chuckled.  Brennan warily rose up on his elbows and squinted.  He was in his living room, on the sleeper sofa.  Gavin was wide-awake on the mattress to his right, a look of poor nausea on his face, while Marnee was fighting a losing battle to remain happily unconscious on his left.  Midway across the room, Jake awkwardly sat up on the loveseat, legs stretched out under a blanket.  He smiled happily and gave the younger boy a wave before turning to tentatively pick at a large tray filled with plates of eggs, hash browns, toast, and bacon.  On the floor beside him, Ciara tried to smile at her brother, but failed when the smile twisted into an uneasy grimace.  She shifted her weight, trying to find a comfortable position in the mountain of pillows and blankets she was laying on.  

Brennan rolled over on his left side and propped his head up on his elbow.  At the archway that led to the hallway, two tiny heads bobbed in and out of sight as soft giggles floated into the living room.  

"It's all right, you two," Marnee called out in a voice heavy with sleep.  "We're all awake."

Instantly, Doyle and Liam dashed into the room.  They bounced onto the sofa bed, peering curiously at the weary teens.  Brennan groaned as he felt Doyle creep to a sitting position on his stomach.

"Allen Francis Angel!  Get off your brother!"  Buffy appeared just inside the room with her hands on her hips.  Oz, Fred, Willow, and Anya walked in just behind her, their arms filled with trays of food.

Doyle yelped and practically jumped off his brother.  Brennan chuckled and shot out a hand to catch the small boy by the leg.  Muscles aching in protest, Brennan pulled his younger brother back towards him.  Doyle beamed as Brennan held him upside down.  "Hi, Brennan!  Are you feeling better?  Mommy said you were sick."

Brennan forced himself to smile at the child as he released the tiny twin, even though he was still trying to decide where to turn when the need to vomit became too great.  Brennan watched as the four-year-old tumbled onto the bed, laughing.  "I'll live, Doyle."  He shifted his gaze to the drowsy redhead at his side and smiled.  "Though my nose is throbbing."

"Told you I'd get you back," Marnee laughed.  The laugh quickly died away as her face began to scrunch up as she realized that her body was throbbing.

Doyle screwed up his brow and put a small hand on his older brother's forehead.  After a moment of contemplation, Doyle's wide grin reappeared.  "Don't feel sick."

Fred shook her head at the boy as she stepped up beside the bed.  "Doyle, we told you.  Brennan an' the others'll be fine.  Now scootch over."  Doyle rolled off Brennan and kept rolling until he bumped into the very grumpy Marnee.  Fred leaned over Gavin and sat the tray of food in her arms over Brennan's lap.  "Afternoon, kids.  Are you feelin' okay?"

Brennan caught a whiff of the eggs and bacon and turned his head away from the greasy foods.  "Not now.  Take it away.  Way too soon."

"Oh, no you don't."  Buffy nudged Fred out of the way and stooped over her son with a large glass at the ready in her hand.  

Brennan scrunched his eyes shut and tried to move away, all the while fighting the nauseous feelings that racked his stomach.  After a moment, he felt something wet and cool being forced past his lips.  Brennan tried hard not to swallow the unwelcome fluid, but failed as some of the drink slipped down into his stomach.  Instantly, the queasy ache subsided.  Brennan opened his eyes and looked up at his mother's beaming face.  Without saying a word, she tilted the glass again and Brennan opened his mouth wide, greedily gulping at the sweet orange liquid.  After swallowing several mouthfuls, he leaned back from the large glass and looked up at the woman feeding him.  "Um…wow!"

Buffy smiled, turning to exchange the nearly empty glass with the nearly full one Fred brought to her.  The blonde mouthed her thanks to the brunette, then dropped to her knees beside Gavin and held out the glass.  Gavin eyed the mixture, horrified, his face turning a sickly shade of green.  Buffy reached out and gripped the back of the boy's head and pulled him forward.  Gavin choked and sputtered as Buffy tipped the liquid into his mouth.  A moment later, he grabbed the glass out of her hands and set to work draining it.  On Brennan's other side, Marnee was getting the same treatment from her own mother, while on the floor, Anya forced Ciara to swallow some of her own drink. 

"Gods, Mom, what is that?" Marnee panted between swallows.

Willow smiled slyly at her daughter as she angled the glass at the girl's mouth.  "A little something Anya and I put together.  Drink it all down; it'll help you recover some of your strength."

Ciara slurped the last drops of the concoction out of the glass she had taken from Anya.  Ciara smacked her lips and smiled lazily.  "Mmm-mmm, good!  Might I be the first to suggest that we bottle that?  I bet we would make a killing."

"Oh, yeah."  Gavin nodded as he put his glass down and started eyeing the plate of pancakes on Brennan's lap hungrily.  "Big opening in the market for an energy drink for the victims of a fun life-force sucking."

"_Life-force sucking_!"  Everyone in the room turned to see Jenny and David standing in the doorway, completely rigid, mouths and eyes wide-open.  Gunn, Angel, Dawn, Cordelia, and Xander walked in behind them.

"Life-force sucking?"  Gunn looked to Xander and Angel with his eyebrows raised.

Xander shrugged.  "It was a thing."

Cordelia looked at the man doubtfully.  "A _thing_?"

"Okay," Xander grumbled, "it was a bad thing, with ropes, a demon fight, life-force sucking, and a bit of swearing."

Gunn nodded and glanced at the worn forms of the kids.  "Man, that's harsh."

"_Demon_?"  David looked around the room wildly.  "What the _hell_ is going on?!"

"David Levi Osbourne, where in the world do you hear that kind of language?" Willow asked, horrified.

"You, Dad, Jake, Brennan, Aunt Buffy, Uncle Angel, Uncle Xander, Uncle Gunn, Uncle Wesley, Aunt Cordy, Aunt Anya, Gavin, Joyce, Ciara, Marn—"

Angel clapped his hand over the twelve-year-old's mouth and looked to Cordelia and Fred with an awkward sort of smile.  "Uh, ladies, would it be too much to ask you to take the little ones to the kitchen so they don't bother their older siblings anymore?"

"They're not bothering _me_," Jake murmured, trying hard not to crack a smile.

Angel glared at the older boy as David and Jenny shrugged out of the adults' restraining embraces and entered the room.  With an awkward look at the three teens on the sofa bed, the pair sat on the floor and leaned back onto the front of the loveseat.

Oz studied his youngest son for a moment, then bent over and hoisted him up over his shoulder.  The boy squealed in shock and fear as his father carried him out of the room.  After a moment of contemplation, Xander began to approach Jenny, but the girl's eyes went wide as she scrambled to leave the room.  Doyle and Liam watched and laughed at Jenny's reaction before seeing the look on Buffy's face.  She motioned to the door and the boys tripped over themselves as they raced for the kitchen.  

Marnee looked around the room uneasily as the parents, including her returned father, stepped further inside.  "Uh…hi."

Angel shifted his weight uncomfortably as he cleared his throat.  Brennan rolled his eyes.  "Great.  And just when I was hoping we could skip the ol' heart-to-heart."

Ciara looked up at her mother with dark and ragged eyes.  "What do you want?"

"Just want to know if you're really okay," Anya reassured them with a smile.  "You know, on account of the whole having-your-life-forces-torn-from-your-bodies-by-a-monstrous-Gummie thing."

Gavin glanced up from the plate of bacon he had commandeered from Brennan and gave the adults a small half-smile.  "We're just fine."

Wesley gave the teenagers a concerned look.  "I would hardly think you're 'just fine.'  The Gummie was ripping your life-forces from you.  I can't imagine what that felt like."

Oz grimaced.  "By the looks, painful."

Marnee shuddered.  "There was some pain."

Brennan growled and pushed the tray of food away.  He frowned at the adults.  "We've been through…well, not through much worse, but it's okay.  We'll deal."

Buffy raised her eyebrows.  "You'll deal?"

Jake nodded.  "We always deal."

"Great, you 'deal,'" Willow said sarcastically.  "How?  By keeping it all bottled in?  That's no way to deal.  You can talk to us.  We _will_ understand.  Trust us."

Brennan looked at Ciara.  His sister gazed back at him, silently gnawing on her lip.  She shrugged uncertainly and looked to Jake.  Brennan followed his sister's eyes and they both regarded the older and wiser boy.  Jake sighed and shook his head, glancing at his own sister.  Marnee, who had followed the exchange, looked down at the piece of toast she was holding.  Gavin didn't even acknowledge the looks that turned to him, concentrating as hard as he could on the plate of bacon.

Xander sighed as he sat down in Angel's leather chair.  "Okay, okay, we get it.  You don't trust us.  Could you…just tell us why?  Why are you afraid to talk to us?"

"Like you've given us any reason to," Gavin replied bitterly.  "Trust's a funny thing.  You know, what's that old adage?  'Fool me once, shame on you.  Fool me twice…'" 

Buffy looked at Brennan and Ciara.  They wouldn't look back at her.  None of the teens would meet any of the adults' gazes.  The former Slayer bit her lip and nodded.  She turned and started to make her way out of the room.  She stopped beside Willow and took her old friend's hand.  They turned and Buffy could hear the faintest rustle as most of the others followed suit.  

"Are you still against us?" Ciara whispered.

The entire room went still.  All that could be heard was Cordelia's furious, high-pitched voice yelling at David for doing something to one of the twins.  Buffy whipped around and looked into her daughter's deep blue eyes.  Something broke inside when she realized that the girl was fighting back tears.  Buffy shook her head.  "No.  Of course not.  We were never against you."

"Yes, you were…you are," Jake said with a small smirk.  "You can't stand the idea of us doing what we're doing.  You don't want us to fight, no matter what you pretend."

"Of course we don't," Willow replied, a sad smile on her face.  "We never wanted this life for you.  Never.  Yes, we lied…lied to keep this from happening.  I understand now that it was a mistake, but then, that was the choice we made.  But this life is the one you have chosen, or rather, it has chosen you, but because it's your choice, we stand by you."

"Do you?" Marnee asked pointedly.  "Because you say you do, but it becomes more and more obvious that you don't.  At every turn, you put obstacles in front of us.  It's hard enough fighting the forces of evil, but fighting you to actually make it out there to face evil is becoming a little bit too much!"

"We love you guys," Ciara stated firmly.  "We love you more than anything.  But…we can't go back.  As much as we'd like to for your sakes.  We've always known that the day might come when we would have to leave.  If it's really come to that, we can, but…"

"Leave?" Anya repeated, a sick expression on her face.

"No."  Willow shook her head decisively.  "There is no way you're leaving.  We'll never let you."

"Can't stop us," Gavin choked out.  "Eighteen, remember?  Legal adults.  Except the girls, and we can wait for them."

"You can't be serious," Buffy half-shouted, half-pleaded.  "You would turn your backs on us?  Do you care so little for us?"

"God, no!"  Brennan clenched his fists and looked away.  "We love you all!  And we certainly never lacked for love.  It's just…last night proved that we put you all at risk.  The possibility that any of you or the younger kids might be hurt because of me has always been and will always be my worst nightmare.  And besides, you can't deal.  It just might be best all around."

"This has nothing to do with whether or not you put us in danger," Oz murmured softly.  "You don't want to face the possibility of losing us.  Not to death, no, you're used to death by now.  Your afraid we're going to reject you.  So this is your solution.  How can we reject you if you're not here."

Ciara snorted and shook her head.  "Interesting explanation for our behavior."

"Yeah," Gavin grinned slyly.  "Kind of setting yourselves up on a pedestal, huh?"

Realization lit up quickly in Xander's eyes and he smiled slowly.  "That's it, isn't it?  It's acceptance verses rejection.  It always has been.  It was rejection when we didn't take it upon ourselves to train you in the first place."

"And it was rejection when we doubted your abilities," Angel finished.  "You had to face the world alone for three years and then you found that you could turn to us…and we turned our backs."

"It's not like that," Marnee breathed.  

"You said so yourself," Willow told the girl.  "If not for the lies, then it would have been you and us."

"Interesting how you pick rejection," Jake sighed.  "Personally, I would have gone with the trust issue."

"Trust is based in acceptance," Oz said with a smile.  "If we don't trust you, it is just another way of saying that we don't accept you.

"Unhealthy insecurities aside, is there a reason we should just hug and kiss and pretend things are all okay?" Brennan asked, his eyebrows raised.  "Please, try to understand that this is who we are.  We can't change it, even if we want to."

Buffy nodded her understanding.  "Believe me, we all know what you mean.  We understand that this is your life.  What happened the other day…we were scared.  We wanted to try and understand, but we just knew what was out there, and you are all really…great at what you do.  It just made it real.  We couldn't do it all for you, so we didn't want you to do it at all."

"Plus we don't want to outlive you," Anya added.  "Kind of common for any type of fighter to die young."

"And no, we aren't going to hug and kiss and pretend things are okay," Angel said with a sigh.  "Well, there probably will be some hugging and a bit of kissing, but no pretending.  Things are not okay.  We have to try and accept this situation.  And when I say accept, I mean the situation, not you.  But _you_ need to understand where we are coming from.  We've devoted our lives to this and we know the prices that have to be paid.  It's not going to be easy getting there, but, someday, things will be okay."

"We can't promise that something won't happen, but we're all _really_ careful and we always have each other for backup," Ciara explained as she gestured to the other teens.  "We've lasted this long.  We might actually make it."

"You will make it," Angel insisted.  "And we'll help you make it."

Brennan rolled his head back and sighed.  "Dad, I thought we--"

"Don't worry, Bren," Willow smiled sadly.  "We've learned our lesson.  We just want to be involved in what you do.  And we want what's best.  So we called the Council.  Bruce and Wesley will _both_ be your Watchers."

Gavin looked up, daring to hope.  "Bruce is coming back?"

Wesley nodded.  "I've spoken with Mr. Howard and he'll be back in Sunnydale sometime in the next couple of weeks.  He plans on reopening the Quill and Parchment for personal income, but he wants to keep the warehouse as our base of operations."

"What about you?" Jake asked, puzzled.

"Cordelia and Fred started looking for houses earlier this afternoon," Wesley explained happily.  "We'll all be moving down as soon as we find homes."

"And we finally heard from your brother this morning," Buffy told Ciara and Brennan.  "Connor will be home as soon as he's finished in Italy." 

Marnee stared off into space, a dumb smile slowly spreading across her face.  "This is a dream.  It can't be real.  You're…you're actually going to help.  _Really_ help." 

Buffy smiled.  "We might even con Spike into lending a hand."

"Speaking of, where is Spike?" Ciara asked, glancing around the room.  "Did he actually survive his kamikaze mission, or is he dust in the wind?"

"Yeah, I think I was actually worried about him at some point," Brennan said with a chuckle.  "There were quite a few more demons follow him than we had originally planned on."

Willow fought back a smile as she regarded the teens.  "Well, Spike actually made it.  He was here earlier this morning, paying his regards since the world obviously didn't end.  He seemed more or less intact."

"Said something about a very large truck driven by a friend of his named Derrick," Buffy continued.  "Apparently, Derrick ran into the demons, then helped him fight the vampires."

The teens laughed, relaxing into the familiar feel of their family.  Oz grew serious and gazed at them all.  "We weren't joking you know.  We love you.  We're going to help."

Angel nodded.  "You're not in this alone any longer."

Ciara looked at Brennan, hoping against hope.  Brennan grinned back at his sister.  Jake nodded slowly as he considered his parents plans.  Gavin still appeared wary but his eyes shined with a hopeful light.

"Aargh!"  Cordelia appeared in the archway.  The actress looked furious.  Under one arm, she had Liam.  The small boy was covered from head to toe in what looked like sticky maple syrup.  In the other arm, she held David in a bruising grip.  The boy was trying hard to look innocent, but the devious grin ruined the entire act.  Cordelia looked at Willow with blazing eyes.  "Willow, I hope to god you're all done in here, because I can't take any more of this!"

Willow bit back a laugh as she mock-glared at her crafty son.  "I'll take him, Cordy.  I'd like to have a word with him."

David's smile vanished and he groaned as Willow placed her hands on his shoulders and steered him into the deserted dining room.  A moment later, Oz followed his wife and son.

Buffy took Liam from Cordelia and held him out in front of her.  She grimaced as the sticky substance quickly coated her hand.  "Okay, little man, let's get this stuff off of you."

Cordelia gladly released the boy and looked down at her soiled front.  "Oh, god.  I'll be back."

Cordelia fled the room and Buffy disappeared up the stairs with Liam as Jenny, Doyle, and Fred reentered the room.  Jenny sat down on the floor in front of the loveseat and Doyle crept back up onto the bed.  Jenny looked around at the silent crowd and moaned loudly.  "If you all are just going to stand there and grin like idiots, can we at least turn on the TV?"

"Sure, Jen," Angel answered and straightened up.  He turned to Wesley and motioned to the television that was now in the back of the room.  "Wes, could you help me set the TV back up?"

"Of course, Angel," Wesley said clapping his old boss on the shoulder.  The two strode to the rear of the room and immediately began to argue about the best way to arrange the television so they could all see.

On the sofa bed, Doyle watched his older brother eat with interest.  Brennan smiled at the young boy and dropped his toast.  "Whatcha thinking, little man?"

Doyle scowled.  "I dunno.  I'm scared of the monsters.  Why did they want to hurt you and Ciara and Mommy and Daddy?"

Brennan stopped chewing and looked up to see if anyone else had heard the four-year-old.  Ciara, Gavin, Marnee, and Jake stared back.  They all shrugged as they looked from Brennan to the child.  Buffy froze as she reentered the room, holding the now clean Liam.  Angel, Anya, Xander, Wesley, and Fred watched Brennan look around, unsure.

Jenny glared at Brennan intently.  She coughed loudly, drawing everyone's attention to her.  "He has a point.  I have yet to hear any sort of explanation as to what those things were and why my entire family seems to be important to them.  And something tells me that I should be remembering keywords like, Hellmouth, life-force sucking, and _demons_!"

Angel sighed and walked over to where Doyle was perched near Brennan.  He picked the four-year-old up and looked him in the eye.  "I think it's time Daddy and Mommy had a talk with you and Liam."

"I didn't do it," Liam cried out immediately.  Buffy shook her head at the boy and bounced him gleefully on her hip.

"I think it's time we all had a talk with all the kids," Willow smiled as she and Oz walked in from the dining room with the bewildered-looking David.

The boy looked around the room wildly.  Once he spotted Jenny, his confusion melted away to a devilish smile.  "Jen, you _so_ won't believe this!"

"I keep getting that feeling," Jenny mumbled unhappily.

Everyone in the room laughed.  Wesley walked out into the hallway, motioning for Fred to follow.  Once in the front hall, they smiled as they saw their significant others standing beside the stairs, contentedly watching the events in the living room as simple spectators.  Cordelia, who had cleaned up and changed shirts, raised an eyebrow at the three other former members of Angel Investigations.  "I guess this means that we're going to have a talk with Diana, Ricky, and Charlie when we get back home?"

"Believe it," Fred nodded emphatically.  "I don't ever want to hear that they've met some strange Englishman."

"Although I'm kind of starting to think that Charlie might know a bit more than he lets on," Gunn admitted.  He looked at the others.  "I wonder how they'll take it."

"_WHAT?!?!  YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING!!!_"  Jenny's shrill screech ripped through the living room and into the hallway.  

Fred winced.  "Probably like that."

The brunette turned and glanced into the large room.  Anya was sitting next to her youngest daughter, patting the hand that hung limply in her own.  Jenny simply stared at some unknown, but apparently fascinating point on the wall, her mouth hanging wide open.  Anya smiled at the girl, trying her best to be enthusiastic.  "Well, as a result of some of you kids' mixed heritages, you're not exactly normal.  You can do things that human children can't."

Jenny whimpered as she numbly turned her gaze to her mother.  "I'm not human?"

David watched Jenny try to absorb this information with a frown.  He turned to his mother and raised an eyebrow.  "Okay, I think I'm following what you're saying, but I have to admit that the whole thing sounds a little bit _X-Files_ to me.  I mean, you're asking me to just trust your word that the world is full of demons and that I'm a warlock.  How do I know you're not just pulling my leg?"

Willow smiled at her youngest child, then glanced up at Marnee, Jake, and Ciara, who were all watching he exchange in amusement.  "Would one of you like to do the honors or shall I?"

Marnee grinned broadly and turned her attention to the log lying forsaken in the unused fireplace.  "_Ignis incende_."

The log immediately burst into flame.  Jenny turned her attention from her mother to stare at the fire, open-mouthed.  David just scoffed.  "That's it?  A fire?  No marshmallows or maybe a hotdog to go with it?  Ooh, hey, is there Floo Powder?"

Marnee's face fell as she glared at the unimpressed eleven-year-old.  "You watch too much TV."

Angel sat in his leather chair with Doyle in his lap.  Buffy was next to the pair in a chair brought in from the dining room, Liam sitting on her.  Both twins looked at their parents confused.  Doyle studied Angel's face.  "But you said they were make-believe."

The front door suddenly swung open and, a moment later, Lexie and Joyce pushed their way through.  Lexie smiled as she walked into the house calling out, "Hello?  Anyone home?"  

Joyce walked into the living room and saw that nearly everyone was there.  She glanced over her shoulder at the group from Los Angeles and raised her eyebrows.  "Wow, everyone's home."

Jenny gazed up at her sisters for a moment, then turned back to her mother.  "Are they human?"

"Oooooo-kaaaaayyyy," Joyce drawled.  "Jenny's finally lost it."

"Sorry we came over, but no one was at home so we just assumed…" Lexie trailed off as she glanced around the room.  She quickly noted that it was a weekday and all of the kids and Willow were at home instead of in school.  Then she saw the bruises, cuts, and general weariness on Gavin, Brennan, Marnee, Jake, and Ciara's faces.  Not to mention the strange looks everyone gave the twin girls.

Joyce looked from the obviously battle-weary teenagers to the way-too-calm adults.  She smiled and raised her eyebrows.  "I get the feeling that we've missed something pretty big."

The teens looked at each other, then burst out laughing.  Gavin gazed up at his sisters and grinned.  "Let's just say, we all had a few mutual secrets."

Lexie and Joyce's eyes went wide.  Joyce shook her head and glanced at the uncomfortable adults.  "Yikes."

Ciara nodded solemnly.  "And we thought they were weird before."

The End---Well, sorta.

Well, that's that.  Finit.  The question now is…Should I leave it at this?

I've gotten a modest amount of reviews (by the way, thanks to those that have!) but there are a few things that one has to understand:

I rarely like anything that a write.  I don't like this.  I don't like anything in As the World Goes Round.  I've written thirty-seven stories, most of which will be here at some point.  I like exactly two.  The first one is _Of Angels and Butterflies_.  That one is an _Angel _fic that will be here in the near future and it's sort of weird…in a good way.  The second is the sequel series to this one, _As the World Falls Down_.  It's dark and intense, although I'll try and even it out for ff.net.  My question to you all is should I do it?

If I do post _As the World Falls Down_, it won't all be up in a matter of two weeks like this one was.  It'll be a slower, more drawn out process.  Probably a month or two…or five.  It's, like, a twenty-five part (or more) story and not short little ficlets like _As the World Goes Round_ or modest chapters like this one, but twenty-five (or more) long separate stories that combine into this ultimate series that covers a year and a half in these lives.  And it will be almost 80% about the kids (although the parents are there obviously and there is one story that is entirely from the Scoobies points of view without the five core kids [JakeGavinBrennanMarneeCiara] even being there in the story).  I've had mixed response on the kids.  It's either a I-like-the-kids-they're-well-developed kind of thing or I-hope-those-little-shits-get-what's-coming-to-them type of review.

So you guys tell me.  Should I post or should I not waste my time?  I'll leave a small summary at the end of this to help you make your decision.  It's totally up to you all.  If not a whole lot of people seem interested, I'll go on to _Of Angels and Butterflies_, _Gone_, _The Hunted and the Hunters_, _Son of Mine_, _Welcome to the Whedonverse_, and my _Harry Potter_ fic (see, there's some cool stuff a-comin').  If I get a good response, then yay for _As the World Falls Down_!  Either way I'll get to work on something I like.  So let me know and thanks for reading this.  (If even _ONE_ person is interested and I decide to put the sequel on the backburner just e-mail me and I'll e-mail the unfinished bits.)  I'll decide within a week or so of posting this, based on the response of that week.

By the way…GO CHECK OUT THE PRE-QUEL!!!  It's like no one is reading it.

Summary for As the World Falls Down:  

They survived a Gummie.  Now can they survive each other?  Working together as a team, the Scoobies and the Scrappies face the threat of the Hellmouth together.  But certain things are bound to screw things up.  Like how does Jen, David, and Charlie adapt to the life of a Warrior?  What happens when Buffy, Willow, and Cordelia decide to play matchmaker? Who's the crazy vampiress that Brennan meets on a stroll through the graveyard?  And the businesswoman named Lilah that makes an interesting offer to Jake?  And what is this about an ancient prophecy foretelling the rising of the Great Warriors, twelve beings with the power to save the world…or destroy it?

_Will the gang survive?  Will Angelus return?  Will Giles' name be cleared?  Will they be able to withstand the pressure? Will Joyce's head explode when she meets a singing-dancing demon in a suede suit (that is, Lorne)?  Will Gavin ever see _Star Wars_?  Flutterby knows the answers, but is absolutely horrible at writing summaries, so review and let her know if she should reveal the way the music died._

I so suck at summaries.

}ϊ{  Flutterby


End file.
